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Troopers arriving tonight for another crackdown on wrong-way driving

 
The remains of two vehicles that were involved in a wrong-way driver colliding head-on with another car on Interstate 275. [SKIP O'ROURKE  |  Times]

The remains of two vehicles that were involved in a wrong-way driver colliding head-on with another car on Interstate 275. [SKIP O'ROURKE | Times]
Published Nov. 13, 2014

TAMPA — An extra 15 state troopers will descend on the Tampa Bay area Thursday night to again crack down on wrong-way, drunken driving.

The campaign is the second of three enforcement initiatives to respond quickly to wrong-way driving reports and apprehend drunken drivers.

The saturation campaign comes as 11 people have died so far this year in wrong-way crashes on bay area highways.

A Tampa Bay Times review of Florida Highway Patrol records shows that wrong-way driving is an astonishingly common phenomenon in the Tampa Bay area.

In the past seven years, troopers have responded to at least 70 incidents of wrong-way drivers on limited-access highways around Tampa Bay.

The additional Florida Highway Patrol troopers from across the state will conduct saturation enforcement of limited access roadways to catch impaired drivers and quickly respond to reports of wrong-way drivers.

Motorists were encouraged to contact the patrol by calling *FHP (*347) should they come across any impaired or wrong-way drivers.