A 70-year-old Lake Tapps man died after driving the wrong way on State Route 164 near Enumclaw on July 30, colliding head-on with a 33-year-old Enumclaw man who also died at the scene. The crash happened near milepost 11 in unincorporated King County, and it shut down the roadway for three hours and 35 minutes while investigators worked the scene.
According to The News Tribune, the Lake Tapps man was driving west in the eastbound lanes of SR 164 when he struck the Enumclaw man, who was traveling east. Washington State Patrol has not determined whether drugs or alcohol played a role in the crash, and investigators have not said how the wrong-way driver ended up on the incorrect side of the undivided highway. Both of those questions remain open as the investigation continues.
A Highway Already Flagged as High-Risk
The stretch of SR 164 where the crash occurred is not just any rural road. State transportation planners have formally designated portions of the corridor between Auburn and Enumclaw as part of the Puget Sound Regional Council's high-injury network, meaning it already carries a documented history of disproportionately severe crashes, according to WSDOT corridor planning documents. Outside city limits, much of SR 164 operates as an undivided two-lane highway without any central barrier separating opposing traffic, per background compiled by the City of Auburn. The 16-mile corridor links SR 18 in Auburn to SR 410 in Enumclaw and carries thousands of daily regional and commuter trips through unincorporated King County and Muckleshoot Tribal land.
Just weeks before the fatal crash, the Washington State Department of Transportation had opened a public survey tied to its $1.5 million SR 164 Vision and Implementation Plan, a study examining safety, access, and infrastructure needs along an 11.3-mile stretch of the highway. The corridor study, funded through the 2025-2027 state transportation budget, was already underway when the July 30 collision occurred, underscoring how officials had identified this stretch of road as a priority even before the crash claimed two lives.
Washington's Outsized Wrong-Way Crash Problem
The Enumclaw collision fits into a much larger and troubling pattern across the state. Between 2020 and 2025, Washington State Patrol responded to 57 fatal wrong-way crashes, 441 crashes involving direct contact with wrong-way drivers, and more than 8,300 reports of vehicles traveling against traffic statewide, according to the WSDOT Blog. From 2004 to 2025, wrong-way collisions accounted for 8% of all traffic deaths in Washington, double the national average of 4% and a rate that ties the state with Maine for the highest share of fatal wrong-way crashes in the country.
State traffic safety reviews cited by KGW found that nearly 60% of wrong-way drivers in Washington were impaired by alcohol or drugs, and almost two-thirds of wrong-way collisions happened at night. Experts note that toxicology testing is not always conducted for surviving drivers, meaning actual impairment rates in these crashes could run even higher than reported. A national study from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that 52.8% of people killed in wrong-way crashes are the wrong-way drivers themselves, and that older age and alcohol impairment significantly raise the odds of driving in the wrong direction.
State Rolling Out Detection Technology
In response to the rising toll, WSDOT has begun installing high-tech wrong-way detection systems that use sensors, cameras, radar, and real-time flashing warning signs, with four such installations already in place on nearby State Route 18 in King County, according to KIRO 7 News Seattle. The system is designed to automatically alert traffic management centers and law enforcement the moment a driver enters a roadway going the wrong direction, giving responders a head start before a collision occurs.
No such system has been reported along SR 164 itself, and the deadly crash near Enumclaw adds fresh urgency to WSDOT's ongoing corridor study. This is not the first traffic safety concern to touch the Lake Tapps and Enumclaw area in recent memory. Hoodline previously reported on two fatal crashes near Lake Tapps over a single summer weekend last year, and separately covered Washington State Patrol troopers intercepting a stolen car driven erratically by juveniles along the same SR 164 corridor near Enumclaw in March 2025.
The pattern extends beyond East Pierce County. Hoodline has also covered a wrong-way crash on SR 509 in South Seattle that left two drivers dead in April, and a wrong-way incident on I-5 near Tacoma in May that hospitalized three people and led to a DUI arrest. Washington State Patrol's investigation into the July 30 crash near Enumclaw remains active, with the cause of the wrong-way entry and any possible impairment still unresolved.
