Police said a suspected drunken driver went the wrong way during the morning commute around 6 a.m., slamming through nine barriers and causing a multi-car crash.
Police said the driver blew through multiple warning gates and headed southbound into traffic driving north.
"It took this person breaking through eight safety arms in addition to a metal barrier before they were able to access the system," Natalie Dale with the Georgia Department of Transportation, said.
The wrong-way driver collided head-on with one car. Another car then slammed into the rear of the first vehicle, police said. All of the drivers were taken to local hospitals. Their conditions and identities have not been released.
Dale told WSB-TV that, in the two years the south metro Express Lanes have been open, there have only been two wrong-way driver crashes.
"There are 10,000 people who travel this system daily and this doesn't happen, so this is definitely an outlier," Dale said.
Still, the crash has some drivers scared.
"They need to do something so people are more aware, put more signs up or something a little bit more visible," Tory Banks said.
WSB-TV asked Dale if the GDOT would do anything different to prevent future crashes. She said the department is going to take a close look at what happened and may consider additional barriers to keep wrong-way drivers out.
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