<p>We were on the Taconic Parkway yesterday (north of NYC) driving home from a family picnic and diverted around the closed section, only to find out later what happened…</p>
<p>A woman driving a mini-van full of kids, for as of yet unknown reasons, entered the wrong side of a split highway and proceeded to drive at highway speeds for nearly 2 miles in the wrong direction. Cars were dodging left and right to get out of her way (with many people calling 911 to report the van) before she crashed into oncoming traffic killing 8 people including herself. </p>
<p>Apparently the driver had called a relative to say she wasn’t feeling well shortly before the incident. Something obviously wasn’t right…</p>
<p>I saw this story last night and it is truly heartbreaking. Included in the dead are the woman’s three nieces. It’s impossible to even try to imagine what their parents must be going through.</p>
<p>I had read that was the second wrong-way accident on the Taconic in the same day. There was another one about 20 miles north of it a couple hours earlier. Lead me to wonder if someone was “playing” with the entrance ramp signs or something in kind of a sick prank? But perhaps not, if the mini-van driver had reported feeling ill. I haven’t driven on the Taconic, is it well-marked?</p>
<p>I have encountered this twice in my life, and it was SCARY!!! By the time the police got there, the cars were long gone and must have gotten to the toll booths at the Thruway entrance, where, hopefully, they were apprehended. For whatever it’s worth, both times involved very elderly couples, with the man driving. I do wish that
more frequent exams were required, both by an MD and in the Dept of Motor Vehicled every year or two after a certain age, just to ensure that eye problems or other medical conditions were properly dealt with.</p>
<p>I can’t remember exactly where on the Taconic I was, but last weekend I noticed that the off ramp and on ramp (for traffic going the other way) were right next to each other. I was on the on ramp getting ready to merge, and noticed that there was a sign saying “Wrong way” or something like that (memory fading) midway on the off ramp and thinking, hmm, what are you supposed to do at that point?</p>
<p>The Taconic is a parkway with two lanes and plenty of grassy areas to pull off onto. This accident seems very strange to me. And tragic.</p>
<p>The same could easily be said for most things posted in this forum. Personally, I felt someone driving for two miles against the flow of traffic on a major highway was certainly an unusual situation and thus don’t think it’s odd that the media reports on it. </p>
<p>At least here in in the NYC metro area the media has been very respectful to the late driver… being careful to pass on comments from the police that there may have been some adverse medical condition at play which would cause the driver to do something like this. </p>
<p>This particular stretch of highway is very open with plenty of space on either side to pull off, thus why the police think something must have been going on as witnesses reported that despite plenty of opportunity to pull off to the side the driver continued to plow head on into the oncoming traffic.</p>
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<p>Doubtful, since she went on for two miles and saw several cars headed the correct direction. Something was very wrong with her apparently.</p>
<p>I had this happen to me once, except not on a highway thank goodness. I was unfamiliar with the traffic patterns and thought the road was getting ready to split instead of just being two lanes going opposite directions. A guy in the correct lane flagged me back over (and over some of those weird median bumper things) just before a cop came into view.</p>
<p>We just spent two weeks in Scotland and spent the better part of the time terrified we’d forget what side of the road to be on. Thankfully we were fine. There are some highway entrances that I do think are confusing - I’m not familiar enough with this stretch of the Taconic though. </p>
<p>That said I did once go the wrong way down a nearby one-way street. (One I know well and there is a pretty noticable Do Not Enter Sign right there.) As I was driving down it I was thinking it was odd that all the cars were parked facing towards me on both sides of the road. When the police stopped me (rather quickly) the street is only a block line - I really couldn’t explain how I’d managed to space out so much. Very weird.</p>
<p>A few years ago we were driving westbound through Iowa on I-80 (I think it’s 80; anyway, it’s the major interstate through Iowa). It was 2 AM, and fortunately I was in the right-hand lane. Lo and behold, a car comes speeding towards us in the left-hand lane. I thought, I know it’s Iowa, but does 80 really turn into a 2 lane highway out here? After the car passed, I noticed there really were separate eastbound lanes; they were just a few hundred feet away from us. Next morning the local paper had the news of a head-on collision. Apparently coyotes taking illegals east often use the westbound lanes to avoid police. So we avoid driving west on the interstates in the middle of the night now.</p>
<p>Where people driving away from a small airport have to turn north or south onto a fast-moving highway. Trouble is, the northbound lanes are across a grassy median with trees, so it is not immediately obvious there are separate roadways. Once in a while, someone misses the signs and turns south into the northbound lane. This is a very scary and dangerous intersection.</p>
<p>How sad. Her poor family - this will make things even more painful. </p>
<p>I honestly am surprised - it never crossed my mind that a Mom with all those kids would do this (I know - I am naive). I assumed she’d had a mini stroke or some sudden other health issue.</p>
<p>hat said I did once go the wrong way down a nearby one-way street.</p>
<p>I don’t do that in Seattle, but I have done that in other cities, especially when a two way street, turns onto one way.
I have also, * almost* gotten on the wrong ramp of a freeway, when it was very snowy, wasn’t cleared and the ramps were right next to each other.
Luckily, someone honked at me, and I took another look.</p>
<p>I have been driving a long time, but there are many badly designed and marked roadways & a lot of traffic that doesn’t allow for careful observation.</p>
<p>It is very scary to think about inexperienced drivers on the road , like my 27 yr old daughter, who has never owned a car, although she does have her license, but she also gets distracted easily. ( she borrows friends cars and rents zipcars)</p>
<p>It almost defies belief–knowing that she was driving a van full of kids, her own two and her three neices–and early in the day, a day she was presumably in charge of the children at all times.</p>
I did once in San Antonio. My husband had done it when we went to SA another time and my friends husband did it when we went to SA. The funny thing was that I had my brother and his wife (visiting from England) in the car with me and I was telling them they were lucky they were in the car with me, not my husband, and relating the story of him going the wrong way down a one way street ha ha ha, and how I would never do that, ha ha ha. Suddenly saw a bunch of lights coming toward me - the one way street apparently changed at some (recent) point to a 2 way and I was on the wrong side of it (my husband was not and he and my kids were wondering what the heck I was doing). Pretty scary. But I was quickly aware of it and put it right.</p>
<p>I was perfectly sober just momentarily stupid. This woman - just mystifying as garland said.</p>
<p>I am quite familiar with this exit and area, and couldn’t understand how someone could get on the wrong way. Now I understand. Very sad for her kids and the folks in the other car.</p>
<p>I went down a one-way street in a small town in Greece. Fortuanley I was going very slow. PO pulled me over, looked at my intl license and laughed and led me out</p>