A wrong-way crash on the Sawgrass Expressway left one person dead and another driver in critical condition late Thursday night.
The crash happened in the southbound lane near University Drive in Coral Springs just before 11:10 p.m.
It happened at nearly the same spot where two young women were killed in a 2013 wrong-way crash, and CBS News Miami spoke with the father of one of those teens, who has focused on preventing more wrong-way crashes.
A head-on collision in the same spot as another before
According to officials, the devastating crash involved two cars colliding head-on with each other. Fire Rescue told CBS News Miami that one person was killed and another was critically injured. The crash caused traffic problems during the night.
Thursday night’s crash happened in nearly the same spot as a wrong-way wreck 12 years ago when a convicted drunk driver killed Marissa Catronio and her best friend Caitlyn Ferrante.
Marissa’s father, Gary Catronio, has been working to end wrong-way crashes since his daughter died.
“We lost two lives that night and it could have been prevented,” he told CBS News Miami.
Catronio is responsible for getting solar-powered signs installed at exit ramps all over Florida, which signal a wrong-way driver, send a message to 911 and notify other drivers on electronic signs.
“There are other ways, but it’s a group effort at that point,” he said. “Everybody has to do a little bit to make a big difference.”
Catronio has lobbied for a system used in New York, where barriers come out of the ground and alert of a wrong-way driver.
“Florida wants to see more realistic statistics, so I told them, ‘Let’s drop some in the ground, even by a fire station — let them pull out in an emergency and let go right through them,'” he said.
Catronio is also looking at a system Australia uses, where a stop sign is projected on falling water. He told CBS News Miami he will spend the rest of his life trying to save other lives: “And then some. I’ll team up with my daughter again and we’ll do it from above.”
Catronio has received several million dollars a couple of years ago to put up more electronic wrong-way signs all over the state, but says despite the continuous work, these kinds of accidents are preventable and won’t stop until they end.
