What Wrong-Way Driving Data Shows—and the Dangers Police Face After Mass. Trooper’s Death

The wrong‑way crash that killed  Massachusetts State Police Trooper Kevin Trainor last week happened during the same overnight hours when most wrong‑way incidents on the state’s highways occur — a pattern the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) has documented for more than a decade.

Trainor, 30, was killed on May 6 while responding to a 911 call for a wrong-way driver on the northbound side of Route 1 in Lynnfield. The crash between him and the driver happened at around 1 a.m. — the same hours that the majority of wrong-way driving incident violations have been recorded on MassDOT-controlled highways in the past decade.

Of the thousands of wrong-way violations over the past decade, most have occurred late at night and in the early morning — far outpacing those during the day.

“The more proactive public safety leadership is working with their partners in MassDOT, the better the odds are that they can prevent these things,” said Dennis Galvin, president of the Massachusetts Association of Professional Law Enforcement.

“This is what modern police leadership is about — evaluating the data, determining what factors are contributing to these crashes and then dealing with those factors,” Galvin said.

MassLive reviewed state data showing nearly 2,800 wrong-way violations issued since 2013. The data from MassDOT is only based on violations on the Massachusetts Turnpike and Boston’s Callahan and Sumner Tunnels.

The figures are from state highways and did not include wrong‑way incidents on local roads, cases where drivers corrected course before being cited by law enforcement, or crashes charged under broader offenses, like negligent or reckless operation.

The time‑of‑day pattern was stark.

Since 2013, MassDOT data showed law enforcement issued over 800 violations between 11 p.m. and nearly 3 a.m. — well above daytime hours, which saw almost exactly 450 violations from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. over the past decade.

There were 1,506 violations from 7 p.m. to 6 a.m., compared to 1,140 violations from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. out of a total of 2,838 violations, according to state data.

Wrong-way driver detection system

When the system detects a vehicle traveling in the wrong direction, it activates an LED flashing sign on the ramp that says “wrong way,” while simultaneously notifying the Massachusetts State Police.

Through that pilot program, the agency recorded a decrease in “wrong way events” for the third consecutive year in 2025 — from 96 in 2023, to 88 in 2024 and to 66 in 2025. In the system’s first few months, MassDOT told media the system had recorded “22 alarms, resulting in several drivers self-correcting.”

The detection systems are installed across 16 points on state highways, including at exits and on ramps in Bernardston, Webster, Burlington, Chelmsford, Danvers, Barnstable, Plymouth and Boston.

Galvin would like to see law enforcement agencies utilizing this kind of data for “root cause” policing efforts — something he believes Massachusetts law enforcement has been lacking in over the years.

“Not specifically criticizing anybody ... it’s been very hands-off. The rank and file are out in the street and they’re just contending with what’s going on, when there could be some activity and some initiative taken,” Galvin said.

“This is all supposed to be driven as a result of data, and if (law enforcement is) not using the data, then there’s a problem with management,” Galvin said.

The former trooper said that officers’ basic approach for wrong-way driver calls is to stop traffic behind the wrong‑way vehicle, alert other patrols and use tactics like stop sticks, blocked ramps or even helicopter monitoring.

Using a cruiser as a barrier to stop a wrong‑way driver is “a very, very high‑risk tactic,” Galvin said, adding while he was uncertain of current formal training policies on that tactic, it would be the act of a “very courageous” officer.

A Mass. trooper’s death caused by a wrong-way driver

While few investigative details have been released about the crash that killed Trainor or his response to the 911 call, the community is acutely aware of the void he left behind as a result of a wrong-way driver.

Funeral services for Trainor were held in Salem on Wednesday, where thousands of state and local law enforcement lined the streets in Trainor’s honor.

State Police Colonel Geoffrey Noble and a police academy classmate, Anthony Angelesco, offered touching tributes to Trainor during his service, who was described as the “epitome of a police officer and a state trooper.”

Trainor would not hesitate to put his own needs aside to help any other person he’d meet and beyond being a selfless friend, had “nothing but the best intentions on the job of the State Police,” Angelesco said. Following prayer, Bible readings and communion, Trainor’s casket was brought from the church and into a waiting hearse.

A steady rain had fallen throughout the day, picking up at its heaviest just as his casket was loaded into his hearse and driven away for burial.

This was after a slew of ceremonial events — a riderless horse trotting through the crowd, a helicopter flyover, the wail of bagpipes’ song and the presentation of Trainor’s casket flags to the beloved women in his life.

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