[tijlover]

How many times have I read of this happening since I moved here, someone driving wrong way on the freeway, collides with a car/truck!!!

Today's paper: 3 Die after wrong way vehicle crashes into another

At 4:30am, 20YO man in an Acura Legend collides head on with a GMC Yukon on I-15 near the Las Vegas Speedway exit. Both drivers killed, and passenger in Yukon killed, 4 sent to the hospital in critical condition.

I may be way off on this one, and others, but could it be? Suicide by Head-on collision?

It all seems so incomprehensible to me, someone not knowing they're not heading in the right direction on a freeway!

What do you think?

[ScoopLV]

Drunk/buzzed tourists looking at their phones. I'm surprised it doesn't happen more often.

[aggrofish]

Sounds like its time to put the spikes they have to prevent someone from going in the wrong way in a parking garage...

[NLVgal]

It almost happened to me, and not on a freeway, but driving my eldest brat to school at six-thirty in the morning. Soccer mom in an SUV driving the wrong way on a two lane road in northwest LV. When I saw that she was coming directly at us, I was able to pull off quickly into the dirt off the road and blare the horn.

Much cursing ensued. I'm sure her ears were ringing.

I don't think these people that drive the wrong way on roads are suicidal, I think they are distracted and / or impaired. This latest one makes me wonder why the vehicle traveling the correct direction didn't see the wrong-way driver in time. I suppose at higher speeds by the time your mind registers "this person is an idiot and is headed directly at me" there might not be enough time to react.

[ScoopLV]

Used to be if a driver was behaving erratically, you could say, "OK, drunk driver. Drop back and wait, or get around him/her." Depending on the road and traffic conditions. But now, who knows what the cause might be: texting, staring at the GPS, blabbing on the phone, checking email, surfing the web. Could be anything.

The other day I was driving home, stopped at a light, and someone pulled up next to me in a gangsta-mobile. He had a rather large TV taking up the entire center console. This driver was playing a porno while driving. Or maybe it was an uncensored rap video. But either way, there was much nakedness and bumping and grinding. That just isn't right.

[observer53]

Originally Posted by tijlover

How many times have I read of this happening since I moved here, someone driving wrong way on the freeway, collides with a car/truck!!!

Today's paper: 3 Die after wrong way vehicle crashes into another

At 4:30am, 20YO man in an Acura Legend collides head on with a GMC Yukon on I-15 near the Las Vegas Speedway exit. Both drivers killed, and passenger in Yukon killed, 4 sent to the hospital in critical condition.

I may be way off on this one, and others, but could it be? Suicide by Head-on collision?

It all seems so incomprehensible to me, someone not knowing they're not heading in the right direction on a freeway!

What do you think?

It's not just Vegas, it has happened in the Phoenix area more than once, too, often with similar results. Sometimes alcohol is involved (surprise). Seems to me one time it involved someone running from the police. The ones I've heard of that we're known suicides were driving the right way and ran into an overpass support, not another vehicle.

[clutchcargo777]

I can only see these freeway wrong ways happening really early in the morning. I mean, there are major dividers separating the directions. The only way to even GET on the wrong side is at an on-ramp, and during normal traffic there is no way you could even get on the wrong way as exiting traffic would stop you.

ETA: Unless you stopped, made a U-turn once on the freeway I suppose. But that would seem... Suicidal.

[MollieW]

Just proves the point that my insurance agent made when she told me that one out of every five drivers in Las Vegas is either drinking or on drugs!

[tijlover]

I certainly can understand the elderly being confused and doing something like this, like the 82YO woman, a couple years ago, who took the wrong freeway ramp, out near Summerlin, collided head-on with two mortorcyclists (killing them both!) and killing herself in the process!

But it's a mystery why, in many cases, people don't see this coming!

[tiger08]

This happened in Victorville twice many years ago, kid in a big monte carlo went head on into a school bus at 70 mph, suicide mission.
There was nothing left of the monte carlo and the force was so strong, it tore both front and rear axle out from under the bus. The 8 month pregnant bus driver was fine but never drove a bus again.

The other time, a kid in Hesperia had his little sister in a camry wagon doing 65 in a 25 resi neighborhood, he ran a stop sign and plowed into the side/ rear corner of a school bus. He hit the bus so hard, it flipped it into a U turn and onto its side. He was killed and his sister was fine. Suicide mission.
That bus driver never came back to work either.