HARTFORD (AP) — Connecticut’s Bond Commission approved $20 million in borrowing Friday for the purchase of equipment designed to help prevent drivers from going the wrong way down the state’s highways after nearly a dozen wrong-way crashes led to 20 deaths this year.
Under the program, the state Department of Transportation plans to install cameras on wrong-way signs across the state, which will trigger flashing lights when a wrong-way driver is detected.
According to statistics from the the Connecticut Transportation Institute at the University of Connecticut, there have been 11 fatal wrong-way accidents this year, resulting in 20 deaths. There were three fatal wrong-way crashes in the state in 2020 and four in 2021, according to the Institute.
“It’s shocking,” Gov. Ned Lamont said after Friday’s meeting. “Obviously, coming out of the pandemic we saw a lot of people driving like a bat out of hell and some extreme driving behavior.”
Officials said about 80% of the accidents involved drivers impaired by alcohol or other substances.
Lamont said state police also have increased patrols and other enforcement activities in an attempt to curb the problem.
“I can guarantee you it is not infrastructure related,” Eric Jackson, the executive director of the Connecticut Transportation Institute, told Hearst Connecticut Media. “The roads and off-ramps have not changed in the last year. It is 100% a driver behavior and human factors issue. Drivers are having badly on the roads.”
The latest fatal crash occurred Sunday in Bridgeport. A van traveling the wrong way on Route 8 struck a car carrying a mother and her two children, police said. The mother was killed along with a passenger in the van.
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From the Republican-American archives, some of the wrong-way crashes in our region in the past three years:
7/13/2022 – “Wrong-Way Crash on Route 8 Being Probed by State Police”
A wrong-way crash on Route 8 South near Exit 34 seriously injured Yocasta Delrosario of Torrington who state police said was driving north on Route 8 South in a 2022 Honda HRV. She was taken to Waterbury Hospital by AMR Ambulance.
The Honda struck a 2018 Honda Pilot driven by Carlos Lucer-Gomez, 38, of Danbury. Lucer-Gomez and passenger Theodore E. Federko, 31, of Oxford, suffered minor injuries and both were taken to Saint Mary’s Hospital.
3/29/2022 – “City Man in Route 8 Crash Now Facing Charge for DUI”
A Waterbury man was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs after he was involved in a two-car motor vehicle accident in which police say he got on a Route 8 off-ramp in Waterbury, going the wrong way.
Tan Do was arrested shortly after the 5 am, two-car crash on the Exit 35 off ramp of Route 8 North.
No injuries were reported in the crash, which police said involved a second car that had just exited the highway.
Do, who police said failed field sobriety tests, was also charged with driving in the wrong direction on a one-way road.
12/21/2021 – “Wrong-Way Driver on Route 9 Faces Charges, Including DUI”
A city man was charged with driving under the influence of alcohol after initially being pulled over for driving in the wrong direction on Route 8 North in Waterbury.
Jencarlos Sinchiguano was arrested just after 2:30 am
State Police said they observed the man’s vehicle traveling slowly in the left lane, heading south against northbound traffic between exit 35 and 36.
Police said the driver failed field sobriety tests.
Sinchiguano was also charged with first-degree reckless endangerment, traveling the wrong way on a divided highway, and operating a motor vehicle without a license.
11/9/2021 – “Waterbury Woman, 28, Charged with DUI after “Wrong Way”
State police arrested a 28-year-old Waterbury woman on drunken-driving charges following a report of a wrong-way driver on Interstate 84 in New Britain.
Alicia M. Fennelly appeared in New Britain Superior Court on charges of driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs and driving the wrong way on a divided highway.
State police said Fennelly was stopped on Interstate 84 West near Exit 35 and she appeared to be impaired, according to a state police release. She also failed a field sobriety test.
8/6/2021 – “City Woman Dies in Head-On, Wrong-Way Crash on I-6”
A city woman was killed after her car crashed head-on into a semitruck while state police say she was driving the wrong way on Interstate 691.
State police say Sharon Knight was driving a 2004 Mercedes-Benz west on the eastbound side of the highway in Southington near Exit 4 at about 5 pm when she crashed into a truck driven by Luis Herrejon, 53, of Oregon.
Knight was pronounced dead at the scene. Herrejon suffered injuries in the crash and was hospitalized, state police said.
Footage of the aftermath of the crash showed the heavily damaged Mercedes near a curve on the highway and it appeared to have hit the front driver’s side of the truck, which was registered to a hauling company, Sunshine Plus, in Oregon.
3/20/2021 – “Terryville Woman Faces DUI”
A Terryville woman was charged with driving under the influence after a crash on the eastbound side of Interstate 84 near Exit 18.
Stefanie Cagno was arrested shortly after an 11:30 p.m. crash that involved three children, who did not appear to be injured but were taken to Saint Mary’s Hospital for evaluation, the state police said. The children were listed as ages 4, 1 and 9 months.
Cagno was driving alone in a 2010 Subaru Forester eastbound on the Exit 18 on-ramp when she lost control, spun out and proceeded to drive westbound in the wrong direction, police said.
A second car, a 2001 Honda Odyssey driven by a North Carolina woman with four passengers, also was traveling eastbound. That driver tried to avoid the wrong-way Subaru and hit a metal guardrail on the left shoulder, police said.
State police said Cagno appeared to be under the influence of either alcohol or drugs and she subsequently failed field sobriety tests.
8/7/2020 – Bristol Man Dies in Crash on Route 8
A Bristol man was killed after a collision with what initially appears to have been a wrong-way driver, state police said Thursday.
Him Heap was driving a Toyota Sienna south on Route 8 in Waterbury near Exit 36 at about 10 pm
At the same time, state police say a Honda Accord driven by Jose Manuel Portillo-Martinez of Cheshire was heading north, the wrong way on Route 8.
Portillo-Martinez collided head-on with Heap’s vehicle. The front of one of the cars caught fire after the collision.
Heap was taken to Waterbury Hospital where he later was pronounced dead, according to state police. Portillo-Martinez was seriously injured in the crash, according to state police and was driven to Saint Mary’s Hospital.
That section of the highway has been the scene of past similar crashes, including a fatal collision in 2015 near Exit 37 that killed a 29-year-old man.
5/18/2020 – “Wrong-Way Driver on Route 8 Apprehended Early Sunday”
Thomaston police stopped a vehicle traveling in the wrong way on Route 8.
Police found a vehicle traveling northbound on Route 8’s southbound lane after a 911 call at 1:53 am brought police to the scene.
The driver was turned over to state police after being stopped.
State police are investigating the incident.
9/16/2019 – “Wrong-Way Driver Kills Self, Other Motorist in Head-On Crash”
A Southbury man was driving the wrong way on I-84 just before 1 am when he collided with the driver of another car, killing both men.
State Police said in a news release the two vehicles collided head-on between exists 15 and 16 on the westbound side of I-84.
David Hozer was driving the wrong way against traffic in a 2011 Audi Q5 when he hit a 2017 Chrysler sedan owned by Phoenix Worldwide Transportation, according to police.
The driver of the limo, Diego F. Jimenez, was taken to Waterbury Hospital, where he died at about 2 am Saturday. Jimenez lived in Newtown, police said.