About 10:30 on a Sunday night this month, the calls started coming in: a car going the wrong way on US 60 in Superior.
That stretch, near Silver King Mine Road just north of the Superior Municipal Airport, is dark mountain highway. There is not a lot of room and not a lot of time.
Superior Police Sgt. T. Wright found the car. Then he drove into it.
There was a baby inside.
Nobody got hurt
Paramedics checked everyone at the scene. No injuries. The infant was handed to family. Superior Police, Superior Fire, the Pinal County Sheriff's Office and DPS all worked the scene.
Superior Fire publicly credited Wright, saying his quick response and decisive action may have prevented a much more serious outcome. That's the fire department being polite. On a two-lane mountain highway at night, "much more serious" means a head-on.
The driver has not been named. Police have not said whether impairment was involved, and the crash is still under investigation.
Why he hit the car
It sounds backward: a cop crashing into the car he's trying to stop. It's the point.
A wrong-way driver doesn't pull over for lights. Often they don't even know they're wrong. Every second they keep moving is another chance at a head-on with a family coming the right way. A controlled hit from a patrol vehicle ends it on the officer's terms, at a speed the officer chooses, with the officer's car taking the damage instead of a stranger's.
DPS troopers have used the same move on Valley freeways for years. In March, a trooper used his patrol truck to stop a wrong-way driver on US 60 in Apache Junction. Wright did it in a small-town police car, with a baby in the other vehicle, which is about as high-stakes as that decision gets.
The number behind it
This year DPS has received 979 reports of wrong-way drivers in Arizona. Seventy-seven of those drivers were impaired. Nearly a third of serious wrong-way crashes in the state are deadly.
The week before Superior, two people died in Valley wrong-way crashes: a 7-year-old girl at 18th and Washington streets in Phoenix, and a 27-year-old woman on Loop 303 in Surprise.
ADOT has thermal cameras that spot wrong-way drivers on Valley freeways and bigger warning signs on the ramps. None of that exists on a mountain stretch of US 60 at 10:30 on a Sunday night. Jesse Torrez, who runs the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, says more patrols are the change most likely to make a difference.
In Superior that Sunday, the patrol was one sergeant. It was enough.
What we're asking
We want to hear from Sgt. Wright, or from Superior PD if he would rather not talk. What goes through your head when you see headlights coming at you and know there's a baby in the car? And how does a small department train for a call most officers hope they never get?
And to Sgt. Wright: thank you. Somebody's kid is home because of you. We are in service.
Hear every episode of The Valley 10-8 on Apple Podcasts.
How we reported this: drawn from Superior Fire Department's public statement as reported by Arizona's Family on Oct. 19, DPS wrong-way report figures and Governor's Office of Highway Safety comments reported Oct. 17, and earlier DPS reports of troopers stopping wrong-way drivers. We have not seen video of the stop, and police have not released the driver's name, possible charges or whether impairment was a factor. We will ask the Superior Police Department whether Sgt. Wright will speak with us and update this story. Corrections and information: [email protected].