Troopers along with law enforcement from around King County kicked off the Holiday Season with an emphasis over this Thanksgiving weekend. 63 DUIs were taken off of the road in King County by troopers alone with many more by other law enforcement agencies. The Washington State Patrol (WSP) also had the Mobile Impaired Driving Unit set up to process the DUIs that were arrested to allow the troopers and other law enforcement to return quickly to patrolling and remove more impaired drivers from the roads. During
the same period in 2017 77 DUIs were arrested.
In addition to the DUI arrests, WSP troopers were extremely busy with numerous collisions to include fatalities.
Below are details on the most significant collisions.
1. On Friday evening on Snoqualmie Pass a total of three WSP vehicles were struck in two separate incidents. The incident in which only one patrol vehicle was struck was occupied by the trooper and was parked. The trooper sustained minor injuries. The second incident where two patrol cars were struck, the sergeant and trooper were outside of their vehicles and thankfully sustained no injuries.
2. On Friday evening just prior to 10pm, two motorcycles ran into each other as they were traveling together SB I-5 to EB SR 18. Both riders showed signs of impairment causing troopers to arrest one rider for investigation of DUI and arrest the other rider for investigation of Vehicular Assault due to the first rider sustaining a broken leg.
3. On Saturday just after 2pm, SB I-5 just south of SR 18, a vehicle drifted onto the shoulder and struck the end of the guardrail sadly causing the passenger to lose their life. The cause of this collision was inattention on the part of the driver.
4. On Saturday, not long after 9pm, another tragic 4 car collision where a young mother died and her infant remains in critical condition. The cause of this unfortunate collision was speed in relation to the traffic condition.
