REVERE, MA — Officials highlighted ongoing statewide efforts to improve wrong-way driving detection and prevention on Monday as a North Shore school district mourns the loss of a 17-year-old senior in a crash on Route 1 in Revere over the weekend.
MassDOT Undersecretary of Highway Administration Jonathan Gulliver said during a news conference on Monday, which was scheduled prior to the weekend crash, that 90 statewide wrong-way detection systems have been installed in the past few months, with 40 more currently under construction and expected to be operational by the end of the year.
By 2027, he said there are plans for 300 detection systems — which alert potential wrong-way drivers with flashing lights and also immediately notify MassDOT and State Police of a wrong-way driver — with a system upgrade planned to send those alerts directly to the driver through GPS systems.
"It can't happen soon enough," Gulliver said during the news conference. "But we expect by this time next year that will be in place."
While the news conference was to tout the improvements in place, Gulliver said he was not aware if any of those changes were a factor in the early morning crash on Sunday when the teen driver from Newbury began traveling southbound in the northbound lanes of Route 1 and caused the crash where his car caught fire and he was killed.
The other driver in the crash sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
"There is still a lot more work to be done," Gulliver said. "That is evidenced by the terrible crash that happened in Revere over this weekend. It's something where we want to acknowledge that this is why we do this. We want to have as many protections in place as we can for all drivers in Massachusetts.
"That was a terrible crash that is still under investigation. We are still working with our partners in the State Police really closely to identify if there are any improvements in that particular area of the future."
While Gulliver said there have been 215 documented cases of wrong-way drivers statewide — with 140 "self-correcting" — this year, the North Shore has consistently been the home to tragic results from wrong-way driving over the past year.
In May, State Trooper and Salem native Kevin Trainor was killed responding to a wrong-way driver report on Route 1 in Lynnfield. His family later filed a $20 million preventable death lawsuit against the Saugus restaurant accused of overserving the wrong-way driver, who was also killed in the crash.
On Thanksgiving Eve 2024, Endicott College Sgt. Jeremy Cole was killed by a wrong-way driver on Route 95.
"These incidents underscore a sobering reality," State Police Lt. Colonel Brendhan Shugrue said during Monday's news conference. "Wrong-way driving is not a remote or hypothetical danger. It is happening on our roadways, and its consequences can be irreversible. ...
"Technology alone cannot eliminate this threat. But, combined with vigilant motorists, timely 9-1-1 calls, effective enforcement and public education, it gives us an important tool to prevent crashes and to save lives."
Lt. Col. Shugrue said the Saugus crash was one of three wrong-way alerts that State Police received statewide early Sunday morning alone.
He said that drivers should immediately call 9-1-1, as soon as it is safe to do so, if they spot a wrong-way driver and never attempt to intercept the driver on their own.
Gulliver said it is unclear if the growing problem of wrong-way driving on highways is a result of better detection of cases that may have previously gone unreported, or whether it is because of an increase in distracted driving.
"Over the weekend, we were reminded of the urgency and the importance of our mission," State Sen. Bruce Tarr (R-Gloucester) said at the news conference. "Once again, on the North Shore, we are having to come to grips with the tragic loss of a 17-year-old driver. A high school student, just beginning on the path of life, taken from us by wrong-way driving.
"It reminds us that this threat exists on roadways across this state. It reminds us that it can strike when we, perhaps, least expect it.
"And it reminds us that all of us are potential victims."
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