Skip to main content

Florida Highway Patrol trials text alert system for wrong-way driving

Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) in the US has implemented a test message instant-alert system as part of the off-ramp detection system in place on 24 exits Expressway Authority-operated highways SR 408 and SR 417.
November 7, 2016 Read time: 1 min

Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) in the US has implemented a test message instant-alert system as part of the off-ramp detection system in place on 24 exits Expressway Authority-operated highways SR 408 and SR 417.

The detection system uses high-intensity flashing lights to warn drivers that they have entered the highway going the wrong way. If the driver continues onto the highway, cameras capture an image of the vehicle and alert law enforcement in order to dispatch patrols to the area.

All FHP supervisors and dispatchers now receive a text message within three seconds of the detection of a wrong-way driver, enabling them to monitor the cameras and dispatch a patrol more quickly.

Related Content

  • GHSA wants more action on distracted driving 
    May 5, 2021
    Some US state laws have not kept pace with tech, says lobby group StopDistractions.org
  • Progressing work zone safety systems
    February 1, 2012
    David Crawford investigates progress in a key safety area - work zones. Highway construction zone safety is taken seriously enough in the US to merit a special spring National Work Zone Awareness Week, which in 2010 ran from 19-23 April. Headed by the US Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), this aims to reduce an annual toll of work zone deaths - 720 in 2008 (an average of one every 10 hours) with more than 40,000 traffic injuries (an average of one every 13 minutes).
  • Progressing work zone safety systems
    February 6, 2012
    David Crawford investigates progress in a key safety area - work zones
  • Upgrading Turkey's tolling system
    April 25, 2013
    A programme modernising road tolling equipment on Turkey’s national highway network has resulted in what is arguably Europe’s most advanced toll system, reports Jon Masters. Turkey has introduced a new system of technology for charging for use of its 2000km national highway network, heralded as the first full-scale use of passive RFID tags for electronic open road tolling in Europe. The new ‘Fast Passing System’ (HGS) is an upgrade of Turkey’s existing Automatic Passing System (OGS) technology, which uses