Labor Day marks the last holiday of the summer. With the three day weekend, the Department of Highway Safety (DPS) reminds drivers that Arizona roadways can be particularly dangerous. In spite of annual campaigns against drinking and driving, there will always be those who choose to ignore such advice.
KGUN Channel 9 in Phoenix reports that DPS troopers arrested two wrong-way drivers in two separate incidents on our roadways on Monday. According to a spokesperson for DPS, the first incident occurred at approximately 2:40 a.m. when the driver of a Toyota Tundra pickup truck was reported to be traveling southbound in the northbound lanes of the Loop 101 near the Bell Road exit.
Thankfully, DPS troopers were able to stop the wrong-way driver near the westbound lanes of North Avenue before anyone was hurt. Law enforcement officers suspected that the driver of the Toyota was intoxicated while driving and they were placed under arrest.
The second wrong-way incident happened less than a half-hour later at 3:00 a.m. along State Route 85 north of Highway 10 in Buckeye Valley. Officials say that a driver of a vehicle was heading northbound in the southbound lanes of the highway.
An ambulance driver for the Buckeye Valley Fire Department was able to stop the second driver and alert DPS troopers to the scene. Officers were able to determine that the second driver was also driving under the influence of alcohol at the time of his arrest.
As with the first wrong-way driver Monday morning, no other vehicles or injuries were involved in the second incident.
No other information has been released at this time.
