LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Because the Fourth of July weekend nears, Las Vegas is taking steps to stop a repeat of last weekend’s tragic wrong-way crashes, which included an incident that claimed the lifetime of a 10-year-old baby. Information 3 takes a more in-depth have a look at the Nevada Division of Transportation (NDOT) efforts to deal with the difficulty through new expertise amid price range constraints.
NDOT is presently working with round $150 million lower than its 2024 price range. Which may be impacting the rollout of anti-wrong method expertise. This expertise, which incorporates radar and closed-circuit cameras, is designed to detect automobiles coming into highways within the flawed route. When triggered, it prompts flashing indicators to alert drivers and dispatches emergency authorities. Nevertheless, solely 4 interchanges in Southern Nevada are outfitted with this technique by way of NDOT.
Lisa Frazier, whose stepdaughter was injured by a wrong-way driver on the 95 Freeway and Charleston Avenue on-ramp, is advocating for elevated funding on this expertise. “Now we have now bought 4 or 5 [wrong-way crashes] a weekend. We now have to do one thing,” Frazier stated. She acknowledged the monetary expense of state {dollars} however emphasised the significance of stopping future crashes.
NDOT defined in a press release that the methods are put in at newer interchanges the place infrastructure helps the expertise. “The size and price of those methods contribute to a gradual, phased strategy,” the assertion stated. Every system prices between $220,000 and $300,000 per ramp, with a number of ramps per interchange.
Sandy Heverly, Govt Director of STOP DUI, argues that expertise alone is inadequate to fight drunk driving. “Cease indicators, pink lights, crosswalks, different visitors gadgets; don’t cease drunk drivers,” Heverly stated. She advocates for harsher penalties for DUI offenses, stating, “The factor that’s going to cease these folks or to assist cease these folks from driving below the affect is having a penalty that outweighs the chance these drunken fools are prepared to take.”
Within the meantime, Frazier’s step-daughter is in restoration at UMC following a number of surgical procedures.
