TEMPE, Arizona — Two drivers are dead after a head-on wrong-way crash on the Loop 202 freeway in Tempe early on Sunday morning, the Arizona Department of Public Safety (DPS) said. Each driver was the only person in their vehicle, and both were pronounced dead at the scene.

Source: The Phoenix Focal, reporting the Arizona Department of Public Safety

DPS troopers responded at about 12:40 a.m. on Sunday, November 8, to the eastbound lanes of Loop 202 near Scottsdale Road, where the two vehicles collided head-on, according to the department. Arizona's Family (KPHO / 3TV / CBS 5) also reported on Sunday that two drivers had been killed in the wrong-way crash in Tempe.

Source: Arizona's Family (KPHO / 3TV / CBS 5), '2 dead after wrong-way crash on Loop 202 in Tempe'

2Drivers killed — each the only occupant of their vehicle
12:40 a.m.Time DPS troopers responded, Sunday, November 8
2Vehicles involved in the head-on collision on eastbound Loop 202
0Names released so far — DPS is waiting for family notification

What troopers know so far

The crash happened on the eastbound side of Loop 202, the Red Mountain Freeway, near its interchange with Scottsdale Road in Tempe. DPS has not said which of the two vehicles was travelling the wrong way, what kind of vehicles were involved, or how long the wrong-way vehicle had been going against traffic before the collision. Those are questions the investigation will have to answer, and the department said additional details will be released as it proceeds.

Source: The Phoenix Focal, reporting the Arizona Department of Public Safety

Investigators have not yet determined whether impairment was a factor in the crash, DPS said. That finding will depend on the crash reconstruction and on toxicology results, which take time — and it has not been announced in the initial reports. The names of the two drivers have also not been released, pending notification of their families.

Source: The Phoenix Focal, reporting the Arizona Department of Public Safety

A busy corridor, and a persistent danger

The stretch of Loop 202 near Scottsdale Road is a busy commuter corridor linking Tempe with Scottsdale and the East Valley, and wrong-way crashes on the region's freeways have been a persistent safety concern. State and local agencies have in recent years explored countermeasures including enhanced wrong-way detection systems and signage at interchange ramps, according to The Phoenix Focal's reporting on the crash.

Source: The Phoenix Focal, reporting the Arizona Department of Public Safety

Arizona's transportation department has long noted the same pattern behind that concern: wrong-way crashes are rare compared with other kinds of collisions, but when they happen they are far more likely to be fatal than an ordinary crash — because two vehicles meet head-on at freeway speed, with no time to swerve. That is what happened in the early hours of Sunday morning on Loop 202: two drivers, alone in their cars, on the same stretch of freeway, travelling in opposite directions in the same lanes.

For drivers in the Valley

Loop 202 is part of the everyday freeway network for the Phoenix area — commuters, delivery drivers and the Punjabi truckers who run loads through the Valley all use these roads, often at night when traffic is light and a wrong-way vehicle is hardest to spot. A crash like this one, at 12:40 a.m. on a Sunday, is a reminder of why troopers urge drivers to stay in the right lane at night, to treat a car coming the wrong way as an emergency and to call 911 immediately rather than trying to pass it — and why families waiting at home should know that DPS does not release names until the families themselves have been told.

What happens next

The DPS investigation continues. Troopers will reconstruct the crash to establish which vehicle entered the freeway the wrong way and where, and whether impairment, speed or another factor played a part. The names of the two drivers are expected to be released once their families have been notified. Anyone with information about the collision is asked to contact the Arizona Department of Public Safety. Awaaz Punjab will update this report if DPS releases the names or any findings on what caused the crash.

Source: The Phoenix Focal, reporting the Arizona Department of Public Safety