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Wrong-way crashes a rare occurrence, according to NCDOT

Wrong-way crashes are fairly rare, according to North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Posted — Updated
By
Chelsea Donovan
, WRAL reporter
RALEIGH, N.C. — An early morning wrong-way crash on I-440 left four people dead over the weekend.
It happened around 2 a.m. Saturday on I-440 between the Capital Road and Wake Forest Road exit.

A memorial has blossomed near the crash site over the past two days.

Balloons and flowers sit near a guard rail where four people in two different cars died early Saturday morning as a result of a wrong-way crash.
Rows of candles sit along the side of I-440 near the Capital Boulevard exit as cars whiz by. This memorial marks the place where four people lost their lives in a wrong way crash early Saturday morning. A listen to Broadcastify radio traffic from around 2 a.m. illustrates the tragedy.
"West bound and Wake Forest Road, be on the lookout for a wrong-way driver, newer model sedan unknown make and model traveling east in the westbound lanes."

This is the aftermath of the wrong way crash on I-440, mangled pieces of metal and what's left of two silver cars.

Raleigh police said a man was driving a Honda Civic eastbound on I-440 westbound. There were two other people in the car. The car that he crashed into had a woman driver. All occupants of both cars died as a result of the wrong-way crash. Raleigh police said they are still notifying next of kin, and thus haven't released the victims' names.

Wrong-way crashes are fairly rare, according to North Carolina Department of Transportation.

In 2023, there were a total of 59 wrong-way crashes, with 23 fatalities.

The period from 2020 through 2022 was one of the deadliest on record - highest number of crashes in history with 206 wrong-way crashes.

The NCDOT said from 2018 to 2022:

  • 47.9% of all wrong-way driving crashes were alcohol-related
  • 53.3% of wrong-way driving total fatalities were alcohol-related

Raleigh police have not yet said if alcohol was a factor in this crash.

The NCDOT says their wrong-way crash detection technology was not used in this incident.

Raleigh police said they will release the victims' names when families have been notified.
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