CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Two more drivers recently attempted to enter the Harbor Bridge, via an exit ramp going the wrong way.
Those drivers were sober and both incidents happened during the daytime, Robert MacDonald, Transportation Planning Director for the Corpus Christi Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) said.
He told members of the MPO Technical Advisory Committee that the drivers self-corrected and turned around before making it onto the bridge.
"They did stop two people, sober, during daylight hours, somehow got around everything," MacDonald said. "And they self-corrected, they figured out they were on the wrong on-ramp to the Harbor Bridge."
KRIS 6 News began investigating wrong-way drivers entering the Harbor Bridge via exit ramps following the deaths of 37-year-old Betsy Mandujano and 27-year-old Matthew Banda in one such incident in November.
6 Investigates learned at least eight people died on the Harbor Bridge and U.S. Highway 181 over a seven-year period due to wrong-way drivers.
That investigation resulted in the permanent closure of two exit ramps and a third remains temporarily closed.
The Texas Department of Public Safety has a trooper stationed around the clock at the fourth exit.
It also resulted in the formation of a wrong-way driver task force established by the Texas Department of Transportation. That task force has since been folded into the MPO's regional traffic safety task force.
MacDonald said the task force and DPS discussed the potential of reducing around-the-clock supervision of that fourth exit, but has decided to continue enforcement.
"At one point it was a thought of can they go down from 24-7, 365? Well, the answer is, not yet," he said.
He also said that local law enforcement agencies are working with TxDOT and DPS to provide additional data, focusing on trends of wrong-way drivers, including incidents of wrong-way drivers that did not result in an accident.
MacDonald said that data will then be used to determine if education, outreach, or potential engineering fixes are needed.
