COLUMBUS, Ohio — It’s been nearly nine months since Tisha Nida died, but Dawnell Laymon still finds herself reaching for her phone to call or text her big sister.
“What I wouldn’t give to just be present with her again,” Laymon said.
The 42-year-old mother of three died on Jan. 29 when she was hit head-on by a wrong-way driver on U.S. Route 23 in Pickaway County. Nida was making a routine trip home to Newark after watching her son compete in a basketball game.
“I remember getting that phone call,” Laymon said. “It was 5:30 a.m., and her ex-husband called and called and called.”
“I remember him telling me she’s gone, and it doesn’t register right away,” she continued. “After about five minutes I just fell to the floor, 'Like is this real?'”
Crashes caused by wrong-way drivers make up about 0.01% of all traffic accidents in Ohio each year, but they’re about 40 times as likely to be deadly, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation.
The frequency of wrong-way crashes is on the rise in Ohio. ODOT recorded 63 wrong-way crashes in 2013. That number has steadily increased each year. In 2022, ODOT reported 105 wrong-way crashes, which killed 12 people and seriously injured 35 others.
ODOT spokesperson Matt Bruning says the agency is constantly working to reduce the risk of wrong-way drivers getting onto Ohio’s interstates.
“We can’t eliminate the risk. There’s no prevention we can do at ODOT,” Bruning said. “That lies solely in the hands of the driver who is making the decision of where to go. What we can do is give them all the clues in the world to reduce the risk that they will continue going on the mainline interstate.”
Part of that reduction effort lies in new technology being deployed in parts of Ohio, including Columbus. This new technology will be deployed on interstates and wouldn't have saved Nida's life - but her sister hopes it will spare another family the same pain.
"My biggest piece of advice would be be mindful because you never know what can happen," Lymon said.