It’s terrifying to think about: You’re driving down the road, and suddenly another vehicle is speeding right at you in your lane. You might have seconds to swerve, or maybe it’s already too late.

Wrong-way crashes kill innocent people with startling frequency in Wisconsin. Our state has the highest rate of wrong-way driving fatalities in the nation, and simple things are not being done to prevent it, such as more conspicuous signs with flashing lights at confusing highway ramps.

Wrong-way crashes killed 484 people in Wisconsin over a decade, which is nearly 1 in 10 of all fatal crashes and more than twice the national average, according to “Headed the wrong way,” a powerful series by State Journal reporter David Wahlberg and photographer and videographer Amber Arnold.

Drunken drivers cause most of these crashes. They need to sober up and face tougher restrictions and penalties — before they kill somebody. They also need treatment for alcohol abuse and strict testing if they want to drive again.

Far too many Wisconsin families have lost loved ones to these horrific head-on collisions.

Paulina Gonzalez and stepfather Kurt Schilling lost four children — Daniel, 25; Fabian, 23; Lilian, 14; and Daniela, 9 — in December when a pickup driver and repeat drunken driver went the wrong direction on Highway 10 near Weyauwega, slamming into the family’s SUV.

Kristin and David Peterson lost their son Grant, 20, in a wrong-way crash a year earlier on Interstate 90-94 near Wisconsin Dells. The driver of a pickup with a blood-alcohol level at twice the legal limit drove west in the eastbound lanes, striking the vehicle Grant was riding in near the exit to Mt. Olympus Resort.

That could have been any one of us in the path of that oncoming wrecking ball on wheels.

Wisconsin’s scourge of drunken driving is largely to blame for wrong-way crashes. The Legislature still hasn’t increased the penalty for a first offense of operating while intoxicated. Instead of a traffic ticket, first-time drunken drivers should be charged with a misdemeanor crime. Wisconsin is the only state to go so soft.

The Legislature still hasn’t required first-time violators to spend a night in jail.

The Legislature still hasn’t forced everyone convicted of operating while intoxicated to install ignition locks on their vehicles. The devices prevent a vehicle from starting without a clean breath test.

As “Headed the wrong way” reports, ignition locks have stopped inebriated people from starting their vehicles 357,946 times from 2006 to 2020 in Wisconsin. That was second only to the much-bigger state of Texas.

Yet many first-time offenders aren’t required to breathe into a tube before starting their car. And for those drivers who are forced to install ignition locks, repeated attempts to drive impaired should extend how long the devices must stay installed.

Wisconsin doesn’t allow sobriety checkpoints like most states. Nor has it joined a national compact to treat out-of-state violations as if they occurred here.

That needs to change.

Yet some of the blame for wrong-way crashes falls on traffic engineers. Poorly designed ramps have confused even sober motorists as they turn onto ramps leading to major highways. In too many cases, the entrances and exits are next to each other, which can fool people, especially at night.

Simply enhancing and increasing “wrong way” signs will help save lives.

Lawmakers and state transportation officials must respond to the findings of “Headed the wrong way” with serious investment. Wrong-way driving isn’t a fluke. It’s becoming more prevalent and demands greater attention and technology to deter.

Iowa reduced wrong-way driving incidents by 94% at confusing intersections with better and more strategically placed signs, Wahlberg reported. “Everybody should do this,” an Iowa traffic safety engineer said.

“Everybody” must include Wisconsin.

A Brown Deer company near Milwaukee makes a promising alert system to detect a driver who turns onto a highway the wrong way. Wisconsin started using the technology in Milwaukee County in 2012 and 2016 but hasn’t expanded or evaluated its effectiveness.

Like Wisconsin, Florida has lots of older people and tourists more prone to becoming disoriented. Florida has installed better signs and pavement markings at nearly all freeways. Arizona is using thermal cameras to detect drivers who head the wrong way and alert authorities and other drivers to the danger.

Just a few million dollars can go a long way in the right direction. State leaders need to hit the brakes on wrong-way driving and turn this dangerous trend around.