ATSSA Signal November/December 2017

16 American Traffic Safety Services Association ATSSA MEMBER COMPANY & PUBLIC AGENCY NEWS From 2004 through 2014, there were 245 wrong-way crashes, 91 of which resulted in fatalities. The study conducted by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT) also shows that in 65 percent of the wrong-way driving crashes that occurred in the state, driver impairment was a factor. When compared to states throughout the U.S., the percentage of impaired drivers involved in wrong-way crashes aligns with the national average of 60 percent. While impaired driving is a significant issue and undertaking in terms of finding a solution, ADOT has been working on implementing technology to help reduce the number of wrong-way driving crashes. The department has advanced a $3.7 million project to build a wrong-way driving thermal detection system along a 15-mile stretch of the state’s Interstate 17 in Phoenix. The system will be the first of its kind in the U.S. and has already detected two vehicles driving in the wrong direction on exit ramps. The system uses a “three-phase approach” when it detects a vehicle traveling the wrong way. It alerts the wrong-way driver so they might self-correct, the drivers traveling the right way, and law enforcement. For Arizona motorists, the future looks bright but for Cathy Hocking, the department’s innovative system is “weeks, even two years, too late.” “I told her I loved her and to be safe when I responded to her text at about 3:30 a.m. their time, but obviously Karli never got that message because at 2:10 a.m. they were killed,” Hocking said as she recounted the morning her daughters, Karli, 20, and Kelsey, 18, Richardson were struck head-on by 21-year-old Keaton Allison, who was driving the wrong way on I-17 in Phoenix on April 14. “I don’t want another mother to go through what I’m going through,” Hocking said. “My entire life was taken from me when Keaton killed my children.” Two sisters taken too soon Karli and Kelsey were originally from Mooresville, North Carolina and both were attending college. Karli was a senior at Grand Canyon University in Phoenix and was getting ready to graduate this year on April 27 with a bachelor’s degree in communications. She had plans to continue her education by obtaining a master’s degree. Kelsey was a premed junior at Western Carolina University in North Carolina. The driven young sisters were always very close, Hocking said, so when Kelsey found out she had an exam that would prevent her from attending Karli’s graduation ceremony, she made plans to spend spring break visiting Karli in Phoenix. Soon the girls had a full itinerary of everything they wanted to do during the break and had planned to close out the visit with a trip to the Grand Canyon to see the Good Friday sunrise before Kelsey flew back to North Carolina on Saturday, just in time to be home for Easter. Hocking said she spoke to the girls that Thursday night before they headed out for their last excursion. Karli and Kelsey were out for a later dinner before heading out early the next morning. It was around 2 a.m. PST when Karli texted Hocking to let her know they were about to get on the highway. Kelsey was sleeping in the backseat. Hocking laughed when she added that Karli also wanted to know how much money they had on their credit card to spend. Karli also texted her boyfriend to let him know they were hitting the road. He asked her to text him when they arrived. She told him she loved him and at 2:11 a.m. he texted “’Please be safe, I love you so much’ but she never got that either” because just one minute earlier, a silver Chrysler Sebring crashed dead on into Karli’s white 2003 Pontiac Sunfire. Keaton Allison was originally from Colorado Springs, Colorado and, like Karli, he was a student at Grand Canyon University. The night before the crash, Keaton and several of his friends were hanging out at a restaurant, “eating and drinking all night.” Keaton’s roommate said that he saw Keaton leave their place to meet up with his friends at a restaurant, the Mellow Mushroom. He was served until last call, just before 2 a.m., before he left the restaurant and got in his car to go home. He stopped at a traffic light before entering the highway the wrong way. A couple traveling in an SUV said they saw Keaton and he was traveling toward them without his headlights on. They tried honking their car horn to get his attention, but Keaton entered the highway and the couple then called 911. A few more miles into his travels, someone else called 911 when they saw Keaton. A third caller was on the phone with police officers as Keaton struck Karli and Kelsey’s car. “She said, ‘Oh my God he’s hit someone, there’s fire and there’s metal flying everywhere,’” Hocking said. “She was on the other side, but she saw him hit the girls and that’s what they deem their time of death—2:10 a.m.” Hocking said Keaton was driving in the HOV lane while Karli was driving in the next lane over. It is still unclear how Allison became situated directly in front of Karli and Kelsey as he was traveling at 80 mph. The girls were driving at the speed limit at around 65 mph. The police reported they were all killed instantly. “First responders were able to get Keaton out easily. It took hours to cut the girls out of the car that he had crushed. Literally hours,” Hocking said. “If they would have even been alive they would have had to lay there and suffer. They couldn’t even use the jaws of life. They had to bring in something called the crusher to cut the entire side of the car and then crush the metal down and pull it away from the car.” First of its kind to take on wrong-way driving Arizona’s detection system to save hundreds of lives comes too late for one N.C. mother By Erica Terrini, ATSSA Public Relations Specialist