Catastrophic impacts often occur in the dark, on highways, and while driving at high speeds. At least 650 people were killed and another 800 were injured in wrong-way driver crashes on Texas roads over a 10-year period, according to TxDOT data.
Approximately 400 people die in wrong-way driving accidents in the United States each year. New technology has shown the potential to immediately warn drivers of impending danger, giving them enough time to move towards safety.
NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reviewed two new solutions, including one developed by the family and friends of a man killed by a wrong-way driver in Collin County and one pioneered by a leading global technology company. Both technologies show promising signs that they may one day save more drivers from head-on, often fatal crashes.
One such crash on President George Bush's Turnpike two years ago prompted a group of friends to seek a solution.
Traffic camera footage from that night showed the driver stopped on the side of the road. The driver suddenly lurched the vehicle forward, made a U-turn, and reentered the highway in the opposite direction.
Investigators said the woman who drove the wrong way had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit. She was killed in the shocking accident, as was the driver of the other car, Michael James Jackson, 41, who was on his way home to his wife, Wendy.
“He had the biggest heart. And he was just a kind soul. And he didn't deserve that,” Wendy Jackson tearfully remembered her husband. he said.
Wendy wondered how she could not only alert the police to wrong-way drivers, but also alert other drivers on the road.
“Everyone knew except the people who were driving on the right roads and were in immediate danger,” Wendy said. “And one of them happened to be my husband.”
Wendy is a force for change and is working on solutions with her husband's friends. Many of Michael's friends are engineers who worked with him when he led the technology innovation team at his AT&T headquarters in Dallas, and are now scattered across some of the nation's largest technology companies.
Michael Linneman, a friend and former colleague of Michael Jackson, said: “We need to let people who are at risk know so they can take action to protect themselves.”
Lawyers for the Jackson family obtained video and records from the NTTA that show the driver who hit Michael Jackson was driving the wrong way for about eight minutes before crashing.
“We had eight minutes to get the information out,” Linnemann said.
Police were warned almost immediately, but warning other drivers is more difficult. Toll roads use electronic dynamic His Message His signs to warn people on the road of danger or changing conditions, but every driver passes these signs before encountering a wrong-way driver. Not that you can.
“The gap is to let people who are driving on the right roads know there is great danger ahead,” said Stephen Higdon, an attorney for the Jackson family.
Linnemann believes mobile phone technology can fill that gap. He found that state transportation agencies, such as the Texas Department of Transportation, already have the authority to issue alerts by telephone through an existing federal system, FEMA's Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS).
The IPAWS system is the same one used to deliver AMBER alerts and other emergency notifications to your phone.
“It's the same way you'd get a weather alert if there's a flash flood on the road you're heading to. You can use the same technology to display warnings for wrong-way drivers detected in your area,” says Linnemann. he said.
Linnemann added that technology exists to tailor alerts to only those mobile phones that are traveling in the lane of the highway where a wrong-way driver is detected.
The concept of issuing a warning only to vehicles in danger has already proven possible in the real world. We went to Detroit to see it.In the Motor City, engineers from German technology company Bosch join NBC Dallas-Fort Worth I rode in a test vehicle equipped with the cloud-based wrong-way driver warning system they developed.
Bosch's system uses GPS data to detect every step of the driver's movements near highway on- and off-ramps, ensuring that the driver is heading in the right direction. When a car enters the geofenced area around these ramps, GPS data is analyzed in the cloud to determine the direction the car is heading.
“When you approach these ramps, you get a ping every second,” said Bhavana Chakraborty, Bosch's director of engineering.
To safely broadcast NBC Dallas vs. Fort Worth As for how the system would work on public roads, Bosch engineers used a detection system to temporarily reverse the proper direction of the ramp so that when the test car entered in the correct direction, the vehicle would instead move in the opposite direction. Now you will receive a warning that you are making progress. About halfway down the ramp, and with enough time to pull over before entering the freeway, an alert appeared inside the car.
“Please check the direction you are heading! If you are on the wrong road, please stop at the nearest shoulder.”
If a test vehicle drives the wrong way, the system will also alert other drivers within six miles of the danger, provided they have Bosch software or an app that uses the software on their phones.
“So we can alert people that a wrong-way driver accident has been detected within six miles,” said Elizabeth Kao, director of product management at Bosch.
Bosch's system is already installed in some cars in Europe. The company announced that it detected and warned more than 600 wrong-way drivers in one year, and alerted 6,000 nearby drivers of the danger. Bosch reported that drivers can be seen on real-time maps receiving warnings and turning back after receiving the warning.
“It's a very powerful event to see that happen. It's a very powerful event to know that that red dot means we alerted someone,” Cao said.
Bosch is currently looking to partner with more automakers and app developers. This is an important step because the system's ability to alert other drivers depends on the number of nearby vehicles and phones using the software. The biggest challenge now is scaling up and getting the software into additional cars and mobile phones, company officials said.
Michael Jackson's former colleagues back in Dallas are also looking to expand their plans, seeking out state transportation agencies and toll road operators who have roads equipped with cameras and direction-sensing systems to test FEMA's warnings. These alerts can be delivered to any mobile phone without the need for additional apps.
“What we want to do is start with a local pilot and expand from there,” Linneman said.
NBC Dallas-Fort Worth reached out to FEMA to confirm that authorized users of the IPAWS system, such as TxDOT, can already issue backward alerts. “State and local governments have the means to access and transmit locally targeted wireless emergency alerts for public safety emergencies…” FEMA said in a statement.
“The technology is there. It's just a matter of getting the approvals and having the right people in place to allow this,” Wendy Jackson said.
NBC Dallas-Fort Worth also reached out to TxDOT, and a spokesperson said the agency is not currently using wireless emergency alerts for wrong-way drivers, but engineers are looking into the technology. .
TxDOT did not provide a timeline for when it would complete its review or decide on a course of action.
For the people Michael Jackson rallied during his life, the notification system is an idea that offers hope after their friend's death.
“We want to honor his spirit and his life. And this is what I believe he would have done,” Linneman said.
NBC Dallas-Fort Worth also contacted NTTA to see if it could help pilot FEMA alerts. A spokesperson said NTTA cannot issue FEMA alerts on its own, but is investigating the possibility and is also considering another alert system that could work through the tollway authority's own app. He said he is doing so.
“There is still much work and research to do to make this system a reality,” the agency said.
Michael Jackson's team prefers the FEMA system, which is already popular nationwide and works with existing phones without downloading additional software. If every toll road system or state transportation department uses its own app, it could create a patchwork system where drivers need multiple apps to receive alerts for different roads across the country.
Meanwhile, Bosch said its system is ready to issue warnings on all highway ramps in North America and does not require the installation of roadway cameras or sensors to first detect when a driver is driving the wrong way. .
New tools are now available, but the question is who will lead the state and national conversation on how to bring technology to more drivers.
