BROWN COUNTY, Wis. (WBAY) — Drivers using some of the major interstates and highways in Northeast Wisconsin will now notice a new alert on message boards warning them when there’s a wrong-way driver.

It is one of the scariest moments drivers could face — heading down the highway or interstate at 70 miles an hour and headlights come straight at you.

Brown County Sheriff’s Patrol Captain Dan Sandberg says it’s all too common and often ends with someone injured or killed, as happened on I-41 in southern Brown County in August.

“It’s almost a weekly occurrence that we have somebody wrong way on the highway. Just recently, again last week, had another wrong way driver on (Interstate) 43,” says Sandberg.

So when he saw a story we aired recently about message boards in Milwaukee County alerting people about wrong way drivers, he set to work to make it possible here.

A few phone calls and one meeting later, the new alert system was activated last Thursday.

Four days later, it was already put to use for an elderly driver going the wrong way on I-43.

“It could take the officers, depending on where they are, anywhere from a couple minutes to five minutes to 10 minutes to get in that area, and that’s extra time we can warn whoever’s driving on that highway,” says Sandberg.

“And that way people can be paying attention to it, because if you’ve got two vehicles at speeds of 70-75 miles an hour towards each other, you don’t have much time to react.”
Here’s what happens: The 911 call comes into the Brown County Communications Center. Deputies are dispatched, and immediately dispatchers then call the State Traffic Operations Center in Milwaukee, which controls DOT message boards and cameras.

With the punch of a few buttons, an alert reading “wrong way driver reported: use caution” will appear on message boards on the roads where the driver was last seen.

“If you see a sign come up, what you need to do is start paying attention to every car that’s coming in the opposite direction of you to ensure that vehicle is actually on the correct side of the roadway,” advises Sandberg.

He says most wrong way drivers are in the left lane, thinking they’re on a two lane road, so if you see one, stay to the right and call 911.

Sandberg says, currently, alerts can broadcast on message boards on Highways 172 and 29 and Interstates 43 and 41, where he says the majority of wrong way drivers are reported.

But this is not just happening in Brown County. Sandberg says the Department of Transportation is working to expand the system to Outagamie and Winnebago Counties, too.