Three GCU students died in a car crash on Monday morning after the students’ car was hit by a car driving in the wrong direction on I-17. The Arizona Department of Transportation has a program in place to prevent car crashes like this in other parts of the freeway.

In 2018, ADOT approved the Wrong-Way Vehicle Detection and Alert System. The program uses 90 thermal imaging cameras to monitor several highly trafficked freeway entrances in the Valley. When a driver enters a freeway and drives in the wrong direction, the cameras alert ADOT officials as well as the Department of Public Safety to the driver.

Freeway billboards will also flash to alert other drivers in the area, encouraging them to get off the road. The program has helped more than 300 drivers to date. ADOT is planning to add additional cameras in 2023.

It also hopes to include these new thermal cameras during upcoming improvement projects to Loop 101 and I-10. The crash site, which was near New River, did not have these cameras in place.