The driver of a car traveling the wrong way on Interstate 275 in Tampa was killed early Friday when the car smashed head-on into an ambulance.

According to authorities, the car, which was traveling northbound in the southbound lanes, crashed into the ambulance on I-275 near Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard at 2:45 a.m.

The driver of the car died at the scene.

According to the Florida Highway Patrol, troopers received information about a wrong-way driver traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 4 near 50th Street.

Other drivers called 911 to report the Honda was initially traveling the correct direction, but then did a U-turn.

“It was off to the right shoulder and then he just abruptly turned around right in front of me and started heading the wrong way," said one caller.

Troopers said the car continued westbound on I-4 until entered the southbound lanes of I-275.

No patients were being transported in the ambulance, which was knocked onto its side in the crash. The two EMTs in the ambulance suffered only minor injuries.

Officials said the driver was a man in his 20s or 30s. His identity has not been released yet. Alcohol and drugs use are both suspected in the crash.

The southbound lanes of I-275 were reopened to traffic before 6 a.m.

I-275 wrong-way crashes

In February, a wrong way driver caught on cell phone video ended up killing himself and four USF fraternity brothers. Just two weeks later, another driver did a U-turn on the interstate and died in a wrong way collision with a rental truck.

At the Florida Department of Transportation traffic command center in Tampa, they are working to protect against wrong-way drivers. There are already message boards that activate after the first 911 call.

"Within one minute, we were able to get the message boards lit up,” FDOT spokesperson Kris Carson said.

But there's more coming in the future. Carson said the agency is testing interstate sensors that would automatically notify FDOT of a wrong-way driver even before that first 911 call.

Upgrades are also in the works for wrong-way signs on ramps. In the future, they'll be much bigger and lowered to the driver's line of sight. The signs would be equipped with sensors to trigger warning lights.

“They would light up, take a picture of the vehicle and essentially would give us quicker response time,” said Carson.

The warning lights should also warn the wrong-way driver to stop--unless they are too impaired to notice.

According to FDOT, these new technologies are in the testing phase on the east side of the state. They still need federal approval and funding. So, it will still be quite some time before we could see them in the Bay area.