If you feel like there has been a wrong-way driver seemingly every week recently in the Bay area, you are not exactly wrong.
There has been an increased in reported events like these recently and on Thursday, there was four instances of wrong-way drivers on Bay area roads, including one that resulted in a fatal crash.
And the recent activity comes despite law enforcement being extra vigilant in attempts to stop wrong-way drivers before they get turned around.
"When these individuals get up on the highway, they think they’re traveling the right direction," said Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Sgt. Troy Morgan. "They think in their mind, they’re heading home, or they’re heading wherever they intended. They have no idea."
A Spring Hill man was killed on US 41 Thursday when the car he was a passenger in crashed head-on into another car near State Road 52. Christopher Roden, 39, was killed and his wife Mary Roden, 38, suffered critical injuries. The driver of the other car, 40-year-old Brian Clukie of Tampa, remains hospitalized in serious condition.
Troopers said alcohol was not a factor in that crash. Roden's death is the 12th this year due to a crash involving a driver going the wrong way on a Bay area roadway. That crash was the last of four incidents Thursday. Two of the other three did involve alcohol, authorities said.
Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputies stopped two wrong-way drivers in separate incidents early Thursday.
Deputies first received calls just before 2 a.m. about a wrong way driver in eastern Hillsborough County. Deputies said Bluma Lantzy was stopped driving the wrong way on Highway 60 East at Turkey Creek Road. She was arrested on DUI charges.
About two hours later, a driver was stopped by deputies going north in the southbound lanes of the Veterans Expressway just south of Gunn Highway.
Deputies said the driver of the Toyota Corolla, 34-year-old Daniel Palmer of Tampa, smelled of alcohol, had delayed reaction and watery and red bloodshot eyes. Deputies said his blood alcohol was measured at more than two times the legal limit.
A few hours later, the Florida Highway Patrol received multiple calls about a motorcycle going the wrong way on Interstate 275 near downtown Tampa.
Troopers responded in minutes and located the motorcyclist, 25-year-old Matthew James Kennedy, of Tampa, standing along the southbound inside shoulder next to the parked 2015 Harley Davidson motorcycle which was facing north.
Kennedy told troopers he had entered the interstate at Busch Boulevard and was traveling southbound listening to music from his smart phone.
Troopers said Kennedy dropped his phone south of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and decided to travel back along the inside shoulder to the area where he had dropped his phone to locate it.
Kennedy’s motorcycle was towed from the scene as troopers said he had a suspended driver license at the time of the incident. No charges were filed.
There were no crashes or injuries in the other three incidents.
"People, when they go out, need to understand that if they’re going to go out and have a good time, that’s fine, they have a designated driver," Morgan said. "And the designated driver is not the least intoxicated person."