Law enforcement looking for risky driving statewide Saturday

OLYMPIA – This year's Night of 1,000 Stars will be this Saturday state-wide, where officers from local agencies and the Washington State Patrol will be looking for people driving under the influence, speeding, aggressive behavior and other traffic violations.  

“Every collision is preventable in some way,” Grant County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Kyle Foreman said. “When we have snowy and icy roads, drivers just need to slow down and put more distance between them and the vehicles in front of them. If we can get drivers to change their behavior, even when it's not snowing icy roads, then our traffic fatality and traffic injury and traffic collision statistics will decrease.” 

According to a Washington State Patrol release the night symbolizes the 1,000 badges shining from officers who are concentrating on preventing drivers from engaging in dangerous behaviors such as those above. 

“We will never give up the fight to make our roads safe,” WSP South Region District 6 Lieutenant Ryan Raymond said in a release from WSP. “Troopers in the greater Moses Lake area have worked very hard this year to help achieve our goal; there have been just under 200 suspected DUI driver’s taken off our roadways so far by our Moses Lake troopers. Five serious injuries collisions have occurred in Grant County this year including one fatality connected to impaired driving. One life lost is too many.” 

According to a release from GCSO 24 people died on Grant County roads in 2023. Those deaths were all related to impaired drivers, speeding drivers or distracted drivers – in a handful of the cases it was a combination of the three.  

“This is the night where all the law enforcement officers team up and try to put a dent in these statistics,” Foreman said. “We try to try to create a safer roadway as possible, so we do not have continuing fatalities on Grant County roads.” 

WSP said it is important to remember that impaired drivers are not just people under the influence of alcohol but also cannabis, prescription medications or any other drugs. The officers will be looking for drivers with traffic violations that could lead to serious injuries or fatal collisions.  

According to the WSP release, there have been 10,900 DUI contacts by WSP Troopers statewide this year.  

"There will be all across the state, state patrol, county, sheriff's offices and city police will all be involved in the effort to stop DUIs, speeders, aggressive drivers and any other traffic violation that they observe,” Foreman said. “The purpose is that every county, every jurisdiction, has their statistics on fatality collisions. This is one night a year, although we target those drivers daily. This is one of the nights during the year that there will be a focused effort with a lot of involvement from law enforcement officers, all doing the same, all doing the same campaign.”