Retired TPD Officer Tried To Prevent Fatal Wrong-Way Crash

Seven people have died in the past month on local roads after wrong-way crashes. The latest was Saturday night on Highway 412.

Troopers say Megan Kramer was driving west in the eastbound lanes of Highway 412 near the Interstate 44 interchange Saturday night when she crashed into motorcycle then an SUV.

The crash killed motorcyclist Mark Alderman and left two other injured; it’s the third wrong-way crash in the last month on Tulsa highways.

8/22/2015 Related Story: Head-On Collision Kills Broken Arrow Man On U.S. 412 Near Creek Turnpike

Lieutenant Mike Eubanks was headed home from work Saturday night when he saw Kramer's headlights coming at him. Eubanks is a retired Tulsa Police officer who currently serves on the Tulsa Community College police department.

“Luckily there was a couple of vehicles ahead of me that also saw, and they took evasive action and avoided a collision, and I was able to get off the roadway and actually get stopped, so when this person passed me I was honking my horn, flashing my lights, waving my hands, trying to do anything I could do get this person's attention," he said.

Eubanks got Oklahoma Highway Patrol on the line and turned around to try and stop her, but it was too late.

"There was really no reason for this to occur, and so it was really a preventable tragedy," he said.

Shelly Benton lives right where the first reports of the wrong-way driver came in. She said the divided highway entrances on 412 are dangerous.

"It's just scary to see how many times people are having accidents in this area, or seeing the street blocked off because there has been an accident. I'm so afraid that one of these days it's going to be somebody that I know," she said.

Benton said it's easy for drivers to turn into on-coming traffic on 412.

"Especially if you've gotten turned around, you're heading somewhere you're not familiar with and then you think you're pulling on just to a two-lane highway and you're heading the wrong way actually on a divided highway that's four lanes," she said.

The Cherokee Nation said Alderman worked for them as a banquets supervisor at the Hard Rock Casino.

Benton would like the highway department to install more signals at the dangerous interchanges along Highway 412.