Wrong way: Driver impairment, lack of awareness key elements in deadly crashes

When Earl Travis looked back at the road after glancing at a side mirror, he saw headlights on his side of a divided highway.

He had a few seconds to react.

“All I could do is, literally, I just turned the wheel to the right,” he said.

That quick move helped him, his wife and their youngest son, Shawn, avoid injury in a Feb. 17 wrong way crash on the Beaver Valley Expressway. Police said after Travis’ SUV was hit, the motorist traveling west in the eastbound lanes collided with a second vehicle, killing a passenger and injuring its driver.

Eileen Travis was in the backseat as the trio headed home to North Baldwin in Allegheny County.

“All I heard was him say ‘Oh my God’ ” and before he could finish repeating it, their Toyota Rav4 was spinning on the highway, she said.

State police spokesman Lt. Adam Reed said steering away from a wrong way driver, if possible, is the best way to react, followed by getting to a safe place and calling 911.

“That’s certainly going to be a scary situation,” he said.

The Travis family knows how lucky they were, but the crash continues to impact their lives. Earl Travis said the memory of it bothered him for a while when he closed his eyes. Plus, they had to navigate the purchase of a new SUV while trying to get back to normal, which has taken time.

“We just kind of walked around in a daze,” Eileen Travis said.

Drivers coming face-to-face with a wrong way motorist typically have little, if any, time to react. Five people have died and one was seriously injured in four separate regional wrong way crashes since July:

• Alex A. Booher, 30, of Jeannette was killed a month ago in Indiana County after a wrong way driver on Route 119 near Homer City crashed into the southbound car in which he was a backseat passenger around 11:30 p.m. Elias L. Jimenez, 28, of Indiana, is awaiting a preliminary hearing on homicide by vehicle charges.

• A Greensburg woman continues to recover from injuries sustained in September when she was unable to avoid a wrong way driver at 10:30 p.m. on Route 30 in Hempfield. Lauren Prenatt, 55, of Hempfield was killed in the crash. Police said Prenatt was traveling west in the eastbound lanes near North Greengate Road.

• Zeth Reber, 22, of Washington Township was killed in November 2021 after he was hit head-on by a minivan traveling the wrong way on Route 380 in the township around 4:30 p.m. The driver, Abigail Jones, 26, of Carlisle pleaded guilty to three summary traffic violations and paid fines.

• Thomas L. Ligon, 47, of Monroeville died after the vehicle he was a passenger in was hit by another vehicle that was going west in the eastbound lanes of the Parkway East near Churchill in July, police said. The crash happened at 2:30 a.m. The two drivers were taken to a hospital.

• A Crafton Heights woman is awaiting a nonjury trial in connection with a June wrong way crash on Route 28 near Millvale that injured eight children and three adults. Fato Muya, 32, is accused of driving north in the southbound lanes. She told police she missed her exit around 11:30 p.m. and made a wrong turn while following her GPS, according to court papers. Eight children were in her minivan.

• Two people were killed in a December wrong way crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Somerset County. State police said Dustin Brant, 27, of the Latrobe and Derry area, was traveling west in the eastbound lanes at 9:15 p.m. when his pickup truck collided with a van being driven by Kawon C. Mooring, 24, of Westlawn, Bucks County.

Nighttime dangers

Reed said it is common for wrong way crashes to happen during night time hours. There can be a number of circumstances that play a role in that type of crash, including impaired driving as well as drivers who are not familiar with the area or who may be affected by physical or mental conditions, such as dementia.

“In our experience, wrong way crashes can be attributed mostly to impaired drivers,” he said.

In March 2021, AAA and the National Transportation Safety Board warned motorists of an increasing rate of wrong way crashes resulting in fatalities. The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that there were 2,008 deaths from wrong way crashes on divided highways nationwide between 2015 and 2018.

The approximate annual average of 500 deaths in that time frame is a 34% increase of the 375 deaths per year between 2010 and 2014, the foundation reported. Those types of crashes are typically head-on and the odds of becoming a wrong way driver increase with alcohol impairment, older age and driving without a passenger.

People 70 and older are at a higher risk of driving the wrong way and nearly 87% of wrong way drivers were alone in the vehicle, data showed. Two motorists tried to avoid colliding Feb. 16 on Route 22 in Derry Township near Jonnet Flea Market, but weren’t successful, according to state police. The crash happened when a 90-year-old New Alexandria man drove west in the eastbound lanes, troopers said. The drivers were extricated from their vehicles and taken to hospital with minor injuries.

The number of fatal wrong way crashes is a small percentage of total fatal crashes, accounting for about 3.7% in 2018.

Sign updates

Signage is an easy and cost effective way to counteract potential wrong way drivers. Numerous signs of that type exist on the region’s highways.

Melissa R. Maczko, safety press officer for PennDOT’s District 12, said when a wrong way crash happens, district officials review the area and its signage. In some cases, extra signs are added but other options can be explored if wrong way crashes continue.

“All signs are reviewed on a recurring cycle to ensure that they are in place and in good condition,” including signs indicating a driver is traveling in the wrong direction, she said.

After the high-profile Route 30 wrong way crash death of Ligonier Township Police Lt. Eric Eslary in May 2015, PennDOT added signs and updated existing signs to make them bigger and include LED flashers, Maczko said. Eslary and was hit around 2 a.m. in his police SUV by an impaired wrong way driver.

“This was completed to prevent additional wrong way drivers at this location,” Maczko said.

Pennsylvania Turnpike officials have updated interchange signage in the last two years, said Rosanne Placey, manager of communications and marketing. New “Do Not Enter” and “Wrong Way” signs with reflective strips have been added. Flexible yellow delineators have been installed at all interchanges to close off openings between opposing directions of traffic that were meant to be used by turnpike maintenance vehicles.

“By closing these openings, the possibility of a driver entering the turnpike the wrong way and crossing over into opposite directions of traffic at the toll plaza has been greatly reduced,” Placey said.