Idaho State Police and Madison County Sheriff’s Office have seen an uptick in wrong way driving recently on U.S. Highway 20, specifically in Madison County.
In some of these cases, the driver has been found intoxicated. Because of this uptick in wrong way drivers, ISP, the sheriff’s office and the Idaho Transportation Department gathered at the east side ramp on Highway 20’s Exit 328, which is the Thornton interchange, to answer questions from the media.
“They always occur. The information we ran was from November of 2024 to now, we’ve had 11 incidents coming through wrong-way drivers,” said Vince Kaaiakamanu, chief deputy of the Madison County Sheriff’s Office. “Out of those 11, four of them were either DUI-related, or drug-related. It’s always happening.”
Sergeant Justin Ward with ISP says if you’ve been drinking, just get a sober driver to help you out.
“If you can get somebody else, don’t get behind the wheel if you’ve been drinking at all is the main message,” Ward says.
Ward says while a first DUI is a simple misdemeanor, it’s much more dangerous than that for other people on the road.
“Worst case scenario is a wrong way driver causing a crash,” Ward says, “you’re looking at causing a fatality, and vehicular manslaughter charges. Could be something that would stem out of an incident like that or aggravated DUI as well.”
Chad Barber is the signs and striping foreman over District Six at ITD and says the department would also like to focus on instances of intoxicated drivers.
“Let’s face that fact, and that we should not be promoting intoxicated driving or drunk driving under the influence of any substance,” Barber says. “I think those are also contributing factors that we need to focus on is driving sober.”
In order to avoid wrong way driving, Kaaiakamanu ultimately encourages drivers to be alert.
“Pay attention. We preach a lot distractive driving,” Kaaiakamanu says. “You need to pay attention. Get off your phones, stop texting, stop taking calls.”