Thirteen people were arrested this year due to reckless driving and 50 people have died this year in car crashes on the road.
State police and the Department of Transportation are continuing efforts to crack down on reckless, impaired and wrong-way driving after another weekend of crashes and arrests.
From Essex to East Hartford, state officials say the state is lucky more people weren’t killed because of bad decisions.
The southern end of Route 9 was the scene of the latest wrong-way driving incident over the weekend.
According to state police, Jaclyn Jerome of Glastonbury was arrested for DUI and other related charges after she was driving south on the northbound side of Route 9 starting in Essex before getting stopped before she merged onto Interstate 95.
Get top local stories in Connecticut delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC Connecticut's News Headlines newsletter.
She is seen in dash cam video released by state police getting stopped by a trooper, after she attempts to turn around before she merged onto I-95.
“It’s a blessing honestly anytime there is a wrong-way driver it’s a blessing no one was injured,” Trooper Remonda Zhuta said.
Local
State police said this was the 13th arrest of the year for DUIs where a wrong-way driving charge has been added.
They continue to release dash cam video of the incidents so people understand what troopers are encountering on the roads.
“Putting that visual out there, not only lets them know what’s going on but also a little more of an alert of what to look out for,” Zhuta said.
The DOT agrees with their strategy, calling on drivers to do better.
“So much of this, again, rests on the individual’s decision to get in the car and drive,” spokesperson Josh Morgan said.
Their major wrong-way program, their wrong-way detection systems, continue to pop up around the state. They have installed another 20 since the start of 2025, bringing the total to 151.
Morgan also noted they are working. So far, over 80% of drivers that encounter and trigger the system get turned around. The one’s who don’t are overwhelmingly impaired.
“People are double, triple over the legal limit and they are putting themselves and everyone else on the roadway in jeopardy,” Morgan said.
Wrong-way driving is only one of the problems state agencies continue to wrestle with on the road.
A Rhode Island man was arrested Monday for reckless driving and attempted assault on an officer in East Lyme after officers had to deploy stop sticks to bring his truck to a stop on I-95 after reckless driving stemming back to I-395.
And overnight Monday, a state police cruiser was struck on I-84 in East Hartford while it was parked assisting a disabled motor vehicle. The trooper sustained minor injuries but is expected to be OK, according to state police. The car that struck him failed to move over for the trooper, but according to police, the driver was not impaired.
“The public really are curious when they have these concerns around reckless drivers,” Zhuta said.
State police note they will continue to educate the public about conditions on the road, and enforce to the best of their ability.
Drivers we spoke to hope that it eventually gets through to the bad actors.
“Watch out for other people, because that’s all you can do, and try to stay safe,” one Massachusetts driver passing through Connecticut said.
CT DOT also notes overall fatal crashes are trending down for this year compared to this time last year, but we have still seen 50 deaths on the road in 2025 - too many according to law enforcement and state agencies.
State police and the DOT are again asking people to drive sober, un-distracted, and slow down as we head into the summer months.
