SALT LAKE CITY — In December of 2025, two teenagers were killed in a crash with a wrong-way driver, highlighting a persistent safety concern on Utah roads.
While the state has detection systems in place for these dangerous situations, a viewer's practical question prompted an investigation into what drivers should do when encountering someone traveling the wrong direction.
"Please explain what to do if you are driving on a freeway and encounter a driver driving towards you in the wrong lane," one viewer asked in an email to FOX 13 News.
To answer this question, a FOX 13 team rode along with Utah Highway Patrol to learn the proper response when facing this terrifying scenario.
Split-second decisions can save lives
It is common to believe that by the time you notice a wrong way drivers coming in your direction, it may be too late. However, Lt. Cameron Roden with Utah Highway Patrol emphasized that drivers do have options if they can spot the danger early enough.
"Yes, they really do," Roden said when asked if drivers have a chance to avoid wrong-way collisions. "If they can see them and safely maneuver out of their way. We have wrong-way drivers that avoid a lot of vehicles and people end up calling that driver in, which helps law enforcement to be able to know where that vehicle is, how fast they're traveling."
Watch: Utah County deputies crash into wrong-way driver
During a demonstration, Roden showed the limited reaction time available when two vehicles approach each other head-on. "So he's in my lane. My best option, I'm gonna try to signal to the right and move out of his way, get over to the shoulder, reduce my speed and stop," he explained during the exercise.
"Right now I'm flashing my lights, trying to get the driver's attention. I could put on my hazards. I'm gonna signal letting other traffic know that I've got an oncoming vehicle and try to maneuver out of his way," Roden said. "You can see how fast that reaction time is, even us traveling really, really slow. We close that distance really quickly, which the options are so limited when cars are closing that fast."
Why wrong-way crashes remain deadly
Despite a recent decrease in the number of wrong-way crashes, fatality rates from these incidents have remained consistent. The reason lies in the physics of head-on collisions.
"They are going to be higher speeds. You've got two cars closing very quickly, which limits the people's abilities and options of what they can do to avoid the crash," Roden said. "So they tend to be head-on collisions, which just have deadly consequences."
Watch: Despite recent deadly incidents, wrong-way crashes actually down in Utah
The majority of wrong-way fatal crashes involve impaired drivers, though Roden noted other causes exist. "We do encounter individuals who are confused or a driver who may be lost and sometimes GPS got them going the wrong way," he said.
Most wrong-way crashes occur in the left lane because wrong-way drivers typically believe they are in their own right lane.
What to do if you see headlights coming toward you
Roden provided specific steps drivers should take when encountering a wrong-way driver:
- Move as far to the right as possible
- Reduce your speed
- Keep a distance between you and the car in front of you
- Flash your lights
- Honk your horn
- Call 911 immediately
"We talk about distractions in our driving, but this is for this reason right here is one of the reasons that we talk about that is if you can spot that wrong-way driver and then start to make maneuvers ahead of time, that is a good chance of you avoiding that crash," Roden said.
The key is early detection and immediate action, as the closing speed between two vehicles leaves little time for complex decision-making in these life-threatening situations.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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