Words of Warning from Prescott Wrong-Way Survivor

A Prescott man has a warning message for all Arizona drivers. He says he was almost struck by a wrong-way driver on Interstate 40, and is encouraging drivers pay close attention to their surroundings on the road.

Eric Wildung, who is a pilot, said that he saw the car during his commute home from Bullhead City to Prescott. He says “I’d just passed an 18-wheeler when I saw two police cars traveling with their lights on. Then in front of me, I saw a car coming right at me in the left-hand lane.”

Wildung immediately applied his brakes and moved over to the right, but the driver followed him, continuing to come at him head-on. Wildung goes on to say “I went off the road to the shoulder to go around him. I figured something was up, and I hoped he didn’t wind up running into someone.”

Yavapai County Sgt. Gary Phelps said that the driver of that car was booked on charges of misdemeanor DUI into a Yavapai County Jail in Camp Verde. In his report, he states that “the sedan had a tire blow out, went through the median at milepost 143 near Ash Fork, and ended up in the opposite lane of traffic. When the officer arrived, he found the vehicle off the road and said the driver was arrested for DUI.”

The message that Wildung is stressing from this encounter is that all drivers need to pay close attention. In a night-time head-on collision, if someone is not paying attention, it can very quickly get to the too-late-to-react point. Phelps agrees, saying that he has seen a number of head-on collisions where drivers crossed over the median into oncoming traffic. He also says that DUI is not the only thing that can cause this behavior. Experiencing a medical issue, falling asleep, being distracted, and other issues have been known to cause it as well.

Phelps challenges the preconception that driving on the freeway is safer, and encourages drivers to be vigilant at all times while driving. “There could be debris in the road, a ladder or other item could come off a vehicle in front of you, or a vehicle in the opposing lane of traffic could come at you. It’s not uncommon,” he says.

Many motorcycle training programs are instituting modules in their training that go over drivers keeping escape routes in their heads. They encourage people to always be thinking “if this happened, how would I react?”

Wildung was very grateful that he was able to get out of the way in time. He closed his statement by saying “Be ready, because you never know what’s going to happen. I only thank God that I was not taken out by that.”