LEHI — Faced with an increasing number of wrong-way drivers, Utah Highway Patrol has implemented a new approach to reducing the risk those drivers pose.

“Troopers do the best they can to try to set up opportunities to intercept the wrong-way driver and keep everybody else that’s on the freeway safe,” Col. Michael Rapich said. “This was borne out of that situation, where our training staff— really leading the nation on this — decided, OK, let’s identify some techniques and some options we can give our troopers when they’re faced with this situation to give them the best opportunity for success and not get anybody hurt.”

Rapich said the new strategy involves a police-initiated buffer — either a slowdown or a closure — between oncoming traffic and the wrong-way driver and then a PIT maneuver or other tactical driving technique to bring the wrong-way car to a stop.

“They’ll get into a position where they can get a closure in place to where they’re not dealing with oncoming traffic, and then a trooper can match the direction of the oncoming vehicle,” Rapich explained. “(They can) then utilize a PIT maneuver, they can utilize a boxing technique, they can just simply make contact — use anything they can to affirmatively bring that vehicle to a stop in a controlled environment.”

Rapich called it a “pilot program,” but also said the strategy was close to being written into the department’s policies.

The new approach has already drawn interest from law enforcement in Arizona and other states, UHP officials said.

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Dashcam video captures wrong-way collision on I-215

Utah Highway Patrol troopers were still trying Wednesday to track down the driver responsible for a wrong-way crash Saturday night on the I-215 west belt.

Sgt. Danny Allen, emergency vehicle operations instructor, said roughly 60 percent of troopers had been trained on the technique at UHP’s track in Utah County.

“We’re simulating that we’re driving against traffic, the road is closed, we’re following the wrong-way driver,” Allen said, explaining the technique from a training vehicle as two troopers practiced in front of him on the track. “The goal is to get this vehicle stopped as quickly as possible before he reaches that stopped traffic, but for our training exercise here, the officers have to perform that PIT maneuver by the end of the straightaway since we have a simulated road closure on the other side of that curve.”

Allen said troopers previously would have had to try to stop a wrong-way driver by ramming into the vehicle in a near head-on angle.

“Before, it was just a matter of time before we lost an officer’s life because there wasn’t a plan,” Allen said. “We didn’t have these tools to do that, so I’m impressed with the direction the department’s going in giving us the tools and training that we need to bring these wrong-ways to a safe stop.”

Ramming a car still remains a possibility when there is no other option, officials said.

Still, Allen said he believed the new technique would end up saving lives.

Sunny Mallick’s car was struck by a wrong-way driver on I-215 in June, leaving him stunned and his sedan mangled.

He said he wasn’t sure if the approach would have helped in his case because the truck had just entered the freeway, but he also said he believed the technique had the potential to make a difference.

“I would never want anything like this to happen to anyone,” Mallick said of his wrong-way encounter. “I think it would definitely help other drivers.”

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