Letter to the editor: Leaders must help prevent wrong-way crashes

How many highways must someone drive the wrong way down before we can make PennDOT take a stand? The answer, my friend, is in our legislators’ hands; the answer should be all over this land.

On July 25, nearly a dozen people, including eight children, were taken to the hospital after a wrong-way crash on Route 28 in Shaler Township. On July 9, one person died after a wrong-way crash on the Parkway East overnight. There were at least two wrong-way crash deaths in Washington County in less than one year. The guilty wrong-way drivers were impaired, and their victims were on their way home from work.

These crashes should cause everyone to shed some tears — and shed some long overdue light on too many wrong-way traffic deaths.

Also, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and the National Transportation Safety Board should support more wrong-way safety measures.

Finally, since most of these occur late at night, there are solar-powered LED flashing “Do Not Enter” and “Wrong Way” traffic signs available to help deter drivers from entering interstate highway off-ramps. Hopefully, these can help to proactively prevent these incidents and tragic deaths.

Let’s reach out to our state legislators to help us get this done now.

Dennis Smiddle

Canonsburg