Two drivers died Sunday after a wrong-way crash shut down eastbound State Route 202 at Scottsdale Road in Tempe, with both found alone in their vehicles and pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities had not released the identities of either driver at the time of reporting, and it remained unclear whether impairment played a role.
Troopers responded to the two-vehicle, wrong-way crash early Sunday, according to 12News. Arizona DPS confirmed both people killed were driving alone when the crash occurred, and officials said the investigation into what caused the collision was still ongoing as of Sunday's report.
What Investigators Still Don't Know
Beyond confirming that two drivers died alone in their vehicles at the scene, officials have offered few other details. DPS said impairment was unknown at the time of reporting. The crash involved two vehicles, and troopers responded at 12:40 a.m.; which direction either driver was initially traveling had not been made public.
The lack of answers mirrors a pattern seen across the Valley this year. Wrong-way crashes have repeatedly made headlines in the Phoenix area, though the circumstances behind Sunday's collision remain distinct from other recent incidents reported elsewhere on the region's freeways.
A Persistent Problem on Arizona Freeways
Statewide data offers some context for how common — and how deadly — these crashes have become. Arizona recorded 1,740 reported wrong-way driver incidents in 2024, down from 1,979 in 2019, but the number of actual collisions caused by wrong-way drivers rose to 59 from 55 over that same span, even as deaths fell to 14 from 17, according to Cronkite News.
Most wrong-way incidents in the state happen between 11 p.m. and 4 a.m., an Arizona Department of Public Safety sergeant told Cronkite News, and driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol accounts for the majority of the causes. Comparatively, Nevada saw 123 wrong-way crashes with 49 deaths in 2024, while Utah recorded 313 such crashes with 12 deaths, per the same report.
A more recent accounting from KOLD found that DPS had logged 979 reports of wrong-way drivers so far that year, with 77 of those drivers found to be impaired. The station's report also noted that nearly a third of Arizona's wrong-way crashes turn deadly, underscoring why state officials have pushed for a mix of infrastructure fixes and increased patrols — Arizona's highway safety director told KOLD it will take a three-pronged effect with law enforcement getting out there to do patrols.
Cameras and Signage Already in Place
ADOT has used thermal cameras to detect wrong-way drivers on Valley freeways since 2018, part of a broader effort that also includes larger wrong-way warning signs at freeway on-ramps, according to KOLD's reporting. Whether any of those systems were triggered ahead of Sunday's crash has not been disclosed.
Loop 202 and the surrounding Tempe freeway corridor have been the site of several unrelated wrong-way incidents in recent years, including a fatal crash on US 60 that killed two men identified by DPS as 22-year-old Jake Brian Bowen of Queen Creek and 38-year-old Abu Sayed Bin Abuya of Phoenix, according to AZFamily. In that crash, one driver died at the scene while the other was taken to a hospital, where he later died.
Other Loop 202 incidents have ranged from a multi-vehicle collision that struck a DPS unit near McClintock, after which a passenger in the wrong-way vehicle died, as reported by ABC15, to a separate crash near Scottsdale Road in which DPS said the wrong-way driver had intentionally driven in that direction in an effort to harm herself, according to the station's reporting. None of those cases share confirmed circumstances with Sunday's crash.
As of Sunday, DPS had not released further updates on the identities of the two drivers killed on Loop 202, and the cause of the crash remained under investigation.
