New Alert System Stops 10 Wrong Way Drivers

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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Newly released numbers show flashing light wrong way signs being tested in South Florida are showing promising results.

A local family who supports the plan said that part two of the proposal to stop wrong way drivers would really make a difference.

Gary Catronio lost his daughter Marisa and her best friend Katie Ferrante to a wrong way driver on the Sawgrass in November 2013.

He was pushing for the pilot program with flashing lights to be put in place should someone drive the wrong way up a ramp. The signs are being tested now and next would be a possible part two.

Click here to watch Cynthia Demos' report. 

Gary Catronio, said, "It is actually on the New York state freeways right now and it's been up there for 10 years so we have 10 years of success to bring to the DOT [Department of Transportation]."

About eight of the pop up polls would be across the lane in the ground, and if you are travelling the wrong way they would pop up  so you can correct yourself and turn around.

Catronio thinks this will only enhance the pilot program that's now in place on the Turnpikes Homestead extension and Sawgrass Expressway. The wrong way prevention pilot program is underway.

Of the 15 test locations, new numbers show it has caught 10 cars going the wrong way within the past  five months.

Pictures and an alert are sent in real-time to Florida Highway Patrol's command center. All 10 drivers hit the brakes when the lights went off.

Turnpike spokesperson Chad Huff said, "I would say the circumstantial evidence is pretty good that the system is having some effect on driving behavior."

Catronio thinks the pilot program numbers are encouraging but if the pop up polls were added in as well, more lives, he thinks, would be saved.

Demos asked, "If something like this was in place the night of your daughters accident?"

Catronio replied, "I think it would have been prevented 100%. Without a doubt there would have been a different outcome."

The Catronio family will present all of this to the Florida Department of Transportation sometime this summer.