Motorists traveling during this holiday season will encounter heightened Washington State Patrol presence on key routes, as travel numbers are expected to reach unprecedented levels.
"We live in Vancouver, Washington, and we're going up to Mount Vernon to visit my daughter for the holidays," stated Brett Thompson.
Luann Larson Hammond, another traveler, mentioned she was arriving from Arizona to spend time with relatives.
With increased highway traffic and drivers navigating mountain passes, the Washington State Patrol is stepping up enforcement measures.
Trooper Rick Johnson of WSP emphasized that their objective is to maintain road safety during this peak travel time of the year.
Between Christmas Eve 2023 and New Year's Day, Johnson reported that troopers conducted 67 DUI arrests and addressed approximately 200 collisions.
For the comparable 2024–25 holiday timeframe, troopers made 66 DUI arrests and responded to a similar number of crashes, with no fatalities recorded.
"We want to obviously have no fatalities again," Johnson said. "And we want people — there's so many options these days, Uber, Lyft, taxi — to get from point A to point B."
Johnson explained that troopers utilize geo-mapping for strategic patrols, concentrating on zones with higher incidents of crashes and impaired driving arrests.
"We just want people to be safe on the roadways," Johnson said. "And we'll be out there looking. Our job is to keep that roadway safe."
Troopers are also advising drivers to reduce speed and stay alert. In a single weekend, several troopers in the Puget Sound region were struck while attending to various incidents.
"This is a tragic reminder for all the troopers out there that this is definitely a possibility," Johnson said. "Not only do we have to pay attention to what we're doing, whether it's stopping a car, what's going on in there, but also the cars that are coming at us. That's why the law was enacted — move over or slow down. Drop your speed, move over if you can."
