By Kate Smith
Yakima Herald-Republic, Wash.
YAKIMA COUNTY, Wash. — Yakima Valley law enforcement officials are working to educate drivers after a large number of fatal crashes in 2021.
Yakima police and county officials hope traffic stops, enforcement and additional education will alleviate some of the frequently seen traffic issues in the county, including impaired and distracted driving and speeding.
Yakima Police Department employees can’t remember a year when there were as many traffic fatalities as there were in 2021.
Patrol Division Capt. Shawn Boyle said there are typically two to four deaths each year from car crashes in the city of Yakima, but a community crime report published by the police department in February counted eight incidents and 10 total fatalities.
“I’ve worked here coming up on 25 years, and I can’t recall a year in which we had more than five or six,” Boyle said. “Last year was significantly higher, probably double of what we normally see, which is obviously a concern.”
The Yakima Police Department made 353 DUI arrests in 2021 and led 12 vehicular assault investigations, according to the report.
The Yakima County Sheriff’s Office recorded about 17 traffic fatalities in 2021 and about 243 injury crashes, according to Traffic Supervisor Sgt. Wesley Rasmussen. He said both numbers are in line with past years in the county.
The county made 110 DUI arrests, Rasmussen said. The city and Sheriff’s Office said impaired driving numbers were on par with other years, though they are high compared to other communities of similar size.
Experts at the state and national level have noticed similar traffic trends. Washington had 540 fatal crashes in 2021 which killed more than 600 people, the highest since 2006, according to data from the state Department of Transportation.
Crash causes
Boyle attributed the city’s high fatality numbers in part to changes in driving behavior and less focus on enforcement — the pandemic and staffing shortages both played a role, he said — but impaired driving was a major factor. The report said alcohol or drugs were a factor in 60% of the fatalities in 2021.
“The use of marijuana and alcohol and other drugs obviously causes people to increase their risky driving behaviors, and those collisions can lead to serious injury and death,” Boyle said.
Police identified intoxicants and speed as factors in an August crash at the intersection of South 48th Avenue and West Nob Hill Boulevard that killed three people: 23-year-old Mason Euteneier, 19-year-old Steve Bueno and 20-year-old Kiona Whitefoot. The driver of a 1994 Ford Escort was northbound on 48th Avenue and ran a red light, crashing into a 2007 Mitsubishi Galant, according to reports from police.
Boyle said the three people who died in the crash, one passenger in the Ford Escort and two passengers in the Mitsubishi Galant, were not wearing seatbelts.
Many crashes are caused by distracted driving, Boyle said, whether people are on their cellphones, eating while driving, or just not paying attention.
“I think that people are doing a lot of things besides focusing on driving, which means you don’t react as quickly to hazards in the roadway,” he said.
On rural county roads, speeding and inattention are the biggest factors for collisions, according to Rasmussen and Deputy Scot Swallow. It’s common to catch people driving up to 70 or 80 miles per hour on any of the county roads, Swallow said.
“You can clarify inattention in a lot of ways, but it usually manifests itself by people running stop signs, cutting in front of people, and aggressive driving sometimes, too,” Rasmussen said.
The sergeant and deputy said they see frequent crashes at t-intersections on Lower Valley roads, like Lateral A, when vehicles are speeding or fail to stop at stop signs.
Speed was a factor in a fatal crash northwest of Harrah on Aug. 5, according to the sheriff’s office. Three teens were killed in the crash and four others were injured when the driver lost control and the pickup they were riding in went off the road and rolled over.
Rasmussen said he has also seen more aggressive and rude drivers on the roads since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Swallow agreed, and asked drivers to be patient and courteous.
“We’re all part of the same community,” Swallow said. “Most of the people you see on the way to work, you’re gonna see on the way tomorrow or the next day, so show them a little courtesy.”
Enforcement and education
Both city and county law enforcement officials are hoping education will help curb some traffic dangers.
Unlike the Yakima Police Department, where traffic stops are generally carried out by patrol officers in lulls between emergency calls, the Sheriff’s Office has a unit dedicated to traffic stops, collisions and investigations. The five-person unit, led by Rasmussen, is funded by Yakima County and the county roads department.
Part of Swallow’s role in the unit is working with commercial vehicle drivers to ensure safety for trucks, farm rigs and other oversize vehicles that use county roads. He has helped educate farmers about vehicle inspections and mechanics, he said.
Rasmussen said the Sheriff’s Office has been also trying to reach out to younger drivers with deputies leading classes at area high schools about driving under the influence, distracted driving and other hazards.
In the city, Boyle said he asks patrol officers to focus on stopping cars for collision-causing violations such as speeding, running red lights and failing to yield to right-of-way traffic. Driver’s license violations are also something to look out for, he said. He said enforcement or a citation is left up to the officer who makes the stop.
“I think interaction with the public helps to educate them on their driving behavior,” Boyle said. “Hopefully that can be corrected by that interaction, but enforcement is another part of that. Some people learn better from seeing the penalties of being cited for the violation.”
(c)2022 Yakima Herald-Republic (Yakima, Wash.)