PHOENIX — The Operation Safe Roads team obtained video from ADOT showing the wrong-way driver from Thursday morning's crash entering Interstate 17 on the off-ramp.
The driver drove about five miles going southbound in the northbound lanes before getting in the deadly crash near Jefferson Street downtown.
This video comes from ADOT thermal cameras, first installed in 2018 as a first-of-their-kind technology to alert law enforcement about wrong-way drivers.
ADOT stresses that these cameras can't stop people from going the wrong way, but they can notify law enforcement quicker—before drivers on the highway can begin calling 911.
The first phase of the program began in 2018 with a 15-mile stretch of I-17 to Loop 101.
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Since it was installed, ADOT says they've detected hundreds of wrong-way drivers from their traffic operations center.
Over the past six years, the camera program has expanded to parts of every highway across the Valley, including on Interstate 10 at ADOT's Broadway Curve Improvement Project.
While the cameras can help alert drivers sooner, no technology can stop wrong-way drivers alone. ADOT has also invested in placing larger wrong-way signs across the Valley.
Law enforcement is still investigating why the driver was going the wrong way on I-17. ADOT says the majority of wrong-way driving crashes involve a driver who is impaired.
See the media-reported wrong-way driver incidents on Valley freeways this year alone:
