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What does it take to get a wrong-way driver to stop?

Posted at 5:47 PM, Dec 07, 2016
and last updated 2016-12-08 09:44:34-05

Wrong-way drivers — you hear about them on Valley highways way too often. But what you usually don’t see is what goes on behind the scenes.

ABC15 obtained pictures from the Gilbert Police Department as they worked to stop a driver in Phoenix near 4th Avenue and Jefferson Street after chasing him all the way from Gilbert, near Ray Road and Arizona Avenue, on Nov. 5.

Police took Tony Gutierrez, into custody after police say he ran several red lights while suspected of DUI during the wrong-way driving ordeal.

Pictures from the investigation show the damage caused when police had to use a PIT maneuver to stop the driver. A PIT maneuver is when an officer can force a fleeing car to turn sideways, causing the driver to lose control and stop.

In this case, when Gutierrez didn’t comply after getting out of the car, Gilbert police say they were forced to use a K-9 to subdue him. The photos show the graphic injuries.

But what will it take to get wrong-way driving to stop? The Arizona Department of Transportation has said before that there's no one way to end it.

RELATED: ADOT tests wrong-way driver detectors

“We can spend millions and millions of taxpayer dollars to try and defeat this, but at the end of the day, it's really upon each of us to defeat the wrong-way driver,” Col. Frank Milstead, DPS director, said last week to ABC15.

He added that it has to be unacceptable in our society if we want to see reckless things like this stop.