The Ohio Department of Transportation is installing more than 30 cameras in central Ohio to detect wrong-way drivers on highways. Cameras will mainly be installed along highway and interstate exit ramps. Cameras will alert the ODOT traffic center to wrong-way drivers and allow the department to dispatch police quickly.
The department has already installed some cameras in the area, such as at the Route 315-North Broadway interchange.
“If you or I see a wrong-way driver and we call 911, we're probably going in the opposite direction of that wrong-way driver,” said ODOT spokesperson Matt Bruning. “The longer we're on the phone trying to explain where we are and trying to get that information to the right jurisdiction, the distance between us and that wrong-way driver continues to increase.”
Bruning said the cameras can catch wrong-way drivers when they enter an exit ramp. Data from cameras in Cincinnati and Cleveland indicate most incidents are accidental and the majority of drivers turn around before they reach the highway. He added that police are not dispatched for these incidents.
“Fortunately, we've seen a declining number each year since 2022 but we still have way too many of these crashes,” Bruning said. “When you look at overall wrong-way crashes they make up anywhere between 0.01 and 0.03% of all crashes each year in the state of Ohio, but they're 40 times more likely to be deadly than other crash types.”
There were 80 wrong-way driving crashes in Ohio in 2025. Bruning said the majority of them were people who were extremely intoxicated.
Other interventions ODOT has deployed across the state to deter wrong-way drivers, such as signs and lights that activate when a driver going the wrong way is detected. Bruning mentioned that other physical interventions have been studied but decided against, like one way spike strips commonly seen at rental car garages.
“They are great tools for a low volume location like a rental car lots, where you're going through there at five miles an hour or so, but when you're talking about highway ramps that get upwards of tens of thousands of vehicles a day, they're just not made for that,” Bruning said. “That's not even something we're even looking at or considering.”
He added one-way spike strips don’t work as well in snow or icy conditions.
Bruning said the wrong-way cameras program is still being piloted, and future data will inform decisions around adding more cameras to central Ohio.
