Nearly 400 people died in wrong-way wrecks in Arizona from 1997 to 2017, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration—meaning this state had fewer wrong-way driving-related deaths than 23 other states and Puerto Rico in those 20 years.
However, deaths caused by wrong-way driving wrecks in 2017 were the highest in Arizona since 2000, pushing the state up in the ranks in the most recent year.
The NHTSA report showed that across the state, 31 people died in 24 wrong-way crashes in 2017, the most recent year for which data was available.
Across the country, 1,537 people were killed in wrong-way collisions in 2017.
The Arizona Department of Transportation completed a study in 2015 aimed to reduce wrong-way driving. The study found that 25 percent of wrong-way crashes are fatal, compared to just one percent of crashes overall on divided highways.
The study found that impaired drivers are the cause of nearly two-thirds of wrong-way crashes.
ADOT also has a thermal camera pilot system on a stretch of I-17 that will alert drivers going the correct way that there could be a wrong way driver on the road.