DOT: Most wrong-way crashes caused by impaired drivers

By Larry Hartstein

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Todrina Johnson never saw the wrong-way driver -- just an SUV flipping in the air.

The wrong-way driver had slammed head-on into a black Ford Explorer traveling ahead of Johnson, and the 29-year-old had no time to brake.

She heard a boom as her own gray Explorer slammed into the black one sitting on its roof.

The steering column pressed against her, trapping her legs. The windshield shattered. Smoke was everywhere.

"I remember opening my eyes and just not believing I was alive," Johnson said.

Johnson and her sister survived that four-vehicle crash at 3 a.m. on Valentine's Day. But five people have died in wrong-way crashes since November, including a U.S. Marine killed last Saturday on I-20.

The state Department of Transportation says approximately 22 people have been killed in wrong-way crashes in metro Atlanta since 2004. (The DOT will wait for reports from law-enforcement agencies to verify the total.)

A DOT study conducted several years ago found most wrong-way drivers were impaired by alcohol or drugs, or had failed to take prescription medication. Occasionally, the driver was trying to commit suicide.

"Way down on the list was someone who made a mistake," DOT spokesman Mark McKinnon said. "There are so many markings, any driver with common sense would recognize they're going the wrong way before they got all the way down to the interstate."

Among other warnings, the state uses "do not enter," "one way," and "wrong way" signs, arrows, and color-coded raised pavement markers to protect highway exit ramps from wrong-way drivers.

"If you're going the wrong way, the reflectors are red on the back side, not white," McKinnon said. "Most people associate red with wrong or stop."

Some have suggested adding spikes that depress when you're going the right way, but puncture tires when you're going the wrong way. They're common in rental car lots.

The DOT has considered them, but they pose several problems. They're designed for low speed, not motorists going 40-plus miles an hour. Trash can clog them, causing the spikes to lock upright. And emergency vehicles need to be able to go down exit ramps the wrong way.

"Those are the key reasons we don't use spikes or anything like that," McKinnon said. "In the future, who's to say there won't be new technology? Right now we don't have that technology."

Heading home from a nightclub with her sister, Johnson was northbound in the I-85 HOV lane between Shallowford and Chamblee Tucker roads. Police say a 27-year-old man who might have been drinking drove southbound in the HOV lane -- without a left front tire -- and caused a wreck that injured nine people, at least four seriously.

Franklin Alvarez Hernandez's Chevy Blazer hit the black Explorer, then veered into a Buick LeSabre.  The Explorer flipped and landed on its roof, while the Blazer veered into a Buick LeSabre. Another Explorer, the one carrying the Johnson sisters, crashed into the overturned Explorer two seconds after it landed, the police report states.

Police are awaiting toxicology reports. Charges are pending against Hernandez.

Johnson called the accident "surreal."

"I just saw [the Explorer] in the air and I went, ‘Oh my God!'" Johnson recalled. "Before I could react, that car was on top of us.

"The way it flipped, it seemed like it hit a big rock."

Only the next day, when her mother picked her up from the hospital, did Johnson learn why the crash happened.

Johnson's sister, 27-year-old Michele, suffered a broken back and hasn't been able to resume work as a dental hygienist.

Other recent wrong-way crashes have been fatal:

• Saturday : A 71-year-old man drove eastbound on westbound I-20 for at least a mile in his Chevy Silverado before slamming head-on into a Mitsubishi Mirage at 5 p.m. near Six Flags, killing Marine Lance Cpl. Gregory Suedmeyer, 21,  and critically injuring his wife Katelyn, 19. Suedmeyer had just returned from Iraq and was driving home to Hunstville, Ala., from Camp Lejeune, N.C. Cobb police expect to file charges against the SUV driver, Bruce Joseph Quayle.
• Dec. 11: Raymond Myrand, 62, drove the wrong way on State Bridge Road in his Ford Explorer and collided head-on with a Ford Expedition driven by Kelly Robertson, 41.  Myrand died at the scene, and Robertson, an Alpharetta mother of two, died a day later. Johns Creek police have not concluded why Myrand drove the wrong way.
• Dec. 8: Jahan Zachery, 25, a psychology major at Gallaudet University who graduated from the Atlanta Area School for the Deaf, was killed on the Downtown Connector when her car was hit head-on by a speeding vehicle driven by Theus Monroe, 26, police said. Atlanta police suspect Monroe was driving under the influence. He is charged with vehicular homicide, reckless driving and driving the wrong way.
• Nov. 21: A 24-year-old mother of four was killed when her Ford Taurus was hit by a Camry going the wrong way on I-20 near Langhorn Street. Shameyka Welch of Austell died in the 3:30 a.m. crash. Robert Ayiteyfio, 35, was charged with vehicular homicide, DUI, and driving the wrong way.