DUIs keep WSP busy over holiday weekend

Crashes and wrong-way drivers suspected of driving under the influence kept Washington State Patrol troopers busy over President's Day weekend.

By Sunday morning, troopers arrested 55 drivers suspected of DUI in Thurston and Pierce counties, according to Trooper Guy Gill.

One of the more bizarre incidents involved a wrong-way driver on Highway 101.

Troopers received reports of a silver passenger car heading south in the northbound lanes of the highway near Little Creek Casino at 1:30 a.m.

"Troopers responded to the area, checked the back roads but couldn't find the vehicle," Gill said.

Calls came in again at 3:30 a.m. describing the same vehicle, only this time driving the wrong way near Budd Bay.

Several witnesses called in saying the saw the car headed south in the northbound lanes.

Investigators believe the silver car exited at Steamboat Island Road before returning to the highway.

"The troopers did a rolling slow down to get traffic stopped," Gill said. "They met headlight to headlight at the overpass to Black Lake Boulevard."

The silver passenger car pulled to the shoulder. The driver, a 40-year-old Wapato man, was "highly intoxicated" and arrested for DUI.

Gill said the passenger of the car also seemed intoxicated.

"The driver thought he was on state Route 12 heading to the east side of the mountains and the passenger thought they were in Yakima," Gill said.

The Wapato man was booked in Thurston County Jail with no bail. Gill said he has two prior DUIs.

"The troopers did an awesome job of getting that vehicle stopped," Gill said. "If it continued south, they were approaching Interstate 5 and the interchange ramps ... the vehicles northbound would have had a very slim chance of seeing that vehicle and a collision was imminent."

Later in the morning, three troopers in Thurston County had three different DUI suspects in custody just after 6 a.m. Sunday.

Additionally, drivers near the 4800 block of Johnson Point Road discovered a crashed vehicle.

Inside was a 29-year-old woman who is suspected of being under the influence, Gill said. She sustained non-life threatening injuries during the crash.

"We believe this collision occurred hours ago," Gill said Sunday morning. "It took daylight for a passerby to see the vehicle."

It was the woman's first DUI arrest, Gill added.