TAMPA, Fla. — The Florida Highway Patrol is investigating yet another head-on collision along I-275 in Tampa.
This latest wreck was in the same general area that’s had a history of deadly head-on crashes.
The Florida Department of Transportation says there’s actually quite a bit being done to try to stop these incidents, but that in many cases — including this one — drug and alcohol impairment is a suspected factor.
FHP says it had to shut down Interstate 275 for more than two hours Friday after a car being driven by a 55-year-old Tampa woman crashed nearly head-on into a pickup truck. The crash happened just before 3:30 a.m. near E Busch Boulevard and I-275.
The collision left the wrong-way driver seriously injured while the driver of the pickup truck suffered only minor injuries.
Kris Carson with FDOT says the department is doing all it can to stop wrong-way crashes.
In the past few years, she says, FDOT has installed dozens of flashing signs with warning sensors, video surveillance and thermal imaging that instantly alerts FDOT, FHP as well as drivers by using overhead signs.
“By early 2024, maybe summer of 2024, we will have every ramp in the Tampa Bay area outfitted with these devices,” said Carson.
FDOT is currently installing 19 warning devices at intersections in the region at a cost of $1.89 million. A similar project at more intersections is set to follow as soon as this round is complete.
The same stretch of I-275 where Friday’s wreck occurred has been particularly deadly. Four USF students were killed by a wrong-way driver in 2014. More recently, Tampa Police Officer Jesse Madsen died after intentionally steering his cruiser into the path of a wrong-way driver.
The frequency of such incidents has FDOT not only looking at signage but the way on and off-ramps are configured.
“Our engineers are constantly looking at the interchange is to see what improvements could be made,” said Carson.
Still, FDOT says the improvements have actually been highly effective. In nearly eight out of ten cases, they say, the wrong way driver safely turns around.
“We’ve had 96 wrong-way driving events since July of last year,” said Carson. “Seventy-four cars self-corrected with those events. That’s over a 70-percent correction rate, which is what we want to see.”
Based upon reports received from other drivers, FDOT says they believe that the wrong-way vehicle in Friday morning’s collision was actually driving southbound in the northbound lanes of I-275 for somewhere between 12 and 15 miles before the wreck occurred.