teen drinking party
Forty percent of the yearly drunk driving arrests in Sammamish involve people under the age of 21, and many of the drivers are under 18. (AP Photo/File)

Teenagers exacerbate Sammamish's drunk driving problem

BY Chris Sullivan  on March 19, 2013 @ 5:05 am (Updated: 9:58 am - 3/19/13 )

Sammamish has a drunk driving problem. It's not the 50 arrests a year in the city that's raising eyebrows, it's who they're finding behind the wheel.

Forty percent of the yearly drunk driving arrests in Sammamish involve people under the age of 21, and many of the drivers are under 18.

While it might not be surprising that young people are drinking and then getting behind the wheel, the rate in which they're doing it in Sammamish far outpaces its neighboring communities. Cities like Redmond and Issaquah report that about 10 to 15 percent of their drunk driving arrests involve people under 21.

So what's different about Sammamish?

Police Chief Nate Elledge doesn't know, and he's trying to find out. "It's not just an enforcement problem," Chief Elledge said. "We could stick police officers out there all day long and make arrest after arrest, but we need to bring the community in to prevent this before it happens."

That's why Chief Elledge started the Youth Impaired Driving Initiative," bringing together all segments of the community to get at why more kids are drinking and driving there as compared to other nearby cities. "Right now we're in the beginning stages," he said. "We've had two meetings. We're just trying to identify why this is an issue here in Sammamish, and then we're going to come up with action steps to say what we can do to combat this problem."

Chief Elledge said some people believe the high DUI rate among teens might have to do with Sammamish being a more affluent area where kids might have big parties while parents are out of town.

"That's the assumption people are automatically going to make, but I can tell you this is a great community with great kids," he said. "My goal is to prevent anybody from getting hurt so rather than just assume it's because we're Sammamish, this is why this is happening. I wanted to hear from community members on why they think it's happening."

Another theory surrounds the loss of the DARE program which disappeared because of budget cuts. Chief Elledge said some high school students believe earlier education on the risks of drinking and of drinking and driving might help change behavior. They told him that trying to reach kids in high school might be too late.

Chief Elledge has his own theories for why, including one for which he considers the city lucky. "Because we've never had a major incident up here, I think, maybe, people don't take it as seriously as they need to," he said. "Bringing awareness to this problem hopefully will reduce these incidents of drunk driving involving our youth."

The next community meeting about the city's problem with underage drunk drivers will be held Wednesday, March 27.

In response to some email requests and questions from KIRO Radio listeners and readers at MyNorthwest.com, I did a little extra stat checking to try and put these Sammamish numbers into some perspective.

The CDC reports about 22 percent of fatal drunk driving accidents nationally involved those under 21 and about 10 percent of kids admit to drinking and driving in self-reporting studies.

In 2010 in Washington, fatal drunk driving accidents by teens made up 14 percent of the total of drunk driving fatalities.

I also received an email from a KIRO listener asking whether these teens were from Sammamish or just passing through. I checked with the police this morning, and they say the majority of the arrests are locals.

Chris Sullivan, KIRO Radio Reporter
Chris loves the rush of covering breaking news and works hard to try to make sense of it all while telling stories about real people in extraordinary circumstances.
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Comments (24)


  • Add A Comment

  • mnpat wrote...
    "Another theory surrounds the loss of the DARE program which disappeared because of budget cuts."
    March 19, 2013 6:51 am
    Not buying into the talking points of big government, maybe we should be talking about parenting and responsibility.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • newsguysully wrote...
    Hey mnpat from the newsroom
    March 19, 2013 6:59 am
    Just an FYI. The loss of DARE was brought up by several high school students as a potential reason, not offered first by the Chief.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • mnpat wrote...
    Thank you for the FYI newsguysully,
    March 19, 2013 7:13 am
    Still feel the answer to the cornicopia of issues can be handles with addressing the biggest problem of all which is lack of parenting and taking responsibilities.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Oly80 wrote...
    mnpat...
    March 19, 2013 11:34 am
    i actually agree with you.

    parents should know where their kids are and what they're doing. clearly this is not the case in large numbers of the families in this area.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • gabewalker wrote...
    ??? DARE....
    March 19, 2013 7:10 am
    the DARE program was a failure as well as the failure of the parents of Sammamish to effectively parent their children... With a DUI rate of 40% under 21 vs. 10-15% for surrounding communities, and a state average of 23% they have a problem and its not the loss of a school program to blame...
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Zoeller wrote...
    "So what's different about Sammamish?"
    March 19, 2013 7:14 am
    I would like to see or hear about some of these arrest reports. I wonder if this is just some cherry picking from a lazy PD that is just hanging out around teen parties and arresting teenager under the zero tolerance law or are a majority of these teens actually drunk?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Zoeller wrote...
    "So what's different about Sammamish?"
    March 19, 2013 7:14 am
    I would like to see or hear about some of these arrest reports. I wonder if this is just some cherry picking from a lazy PD that is just hanging out around teen parties and arresting teenager under the zero tolerance law or are a majority of these teens actually drunk?
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • gabewalker wrote...
    if kids alcohol and driving were not involved...
    March 19, 2013 8:14 am
    I could see over zealous policing by the Sammamish PD...However, drinking and driving kills people, and destroys family's and futures...These kids are being stupid and parents are brushing it off.. A simple dumb mistake could cost them everything, their hopes, dreams, all gone...In a flash they would go from having the time of their young lives to prison because they killed someone while drunk behind the wheel ... This is a parent issue and only a parent issue.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • anotherfencewalker wrote...
    Perfect storm...
    March 19, 2013 7:58 am
    Beamers, Booze and Mom and Dad are full time professionals cleaning peoples teeth or giving botox treatments. The Samamish Plateau is where money goes all wrong or all right.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • FreeRange wrote...
    The difference...
    March 19, 2013 8:01 am
    If you live in or around of Sammamish you will know. Too much money, too much entitlement and too much pressure. The number of competing, helicopter and over achieving parents in Sammamish is staggering. The drug use among Moms who are trying to keep up is staggering. God forbid that the kids there ever fail at anything. I feel sorry for these over managed programmed kids. What a mess!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Ontos wrote...
    Maybe the water's bad
    March 19, 2013 9:36 am
    In Sammamish.
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Chuck Gould wrote...
    Kids out in the burbs may have less to do, so they drink more
    March 19, 2013 11:19 am
    and rich, entitled kids probably drink more yet.....or at least they can steal a better grade of booze from their folks.And of course most of those kids up on the plateau got a pretty fancy set of wheels on their 16th birthday...

    Some of the worst dependency problems among kids these days aren't inner-city situations. Meth is craziest out in the country and the rich kids in the foothills are turning into country club lushes.

    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • Cougsfan34 wrote...
    I can tell you why!!!
    March 19, 2013 11:27 am
    Here is why Sammamish has such a problem since I grew up nearby. 1. Rich parents who don't give a sho*t about their kids. 2. The fact that KCSD use to patrol up there and all the new officers wanted to look cool and use to hang out with us teens. 3. To few cops. 4. Hwy 202 5. Did I mention rich kids with parents who are utterly worthless and would let their high school daughter have sex in her room with her high school boyfriend and the only thing they would say is "Turn up the music its distracting"??? 6. Private Property and long driveways are nice out there too. NAILED IT. Your welcome
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
  • chubby wrote...
    I wonder . . .
    March 19, 2013 11:33 am
    how many times Anne Bremner drove drunk before she was finally caught. Ask her next time you have her on your show, Dori. Hypocrite! Oh wait, Dori says that people drive an average of 80 times before they are caught. And please, please, please start taking phone calls from listeners again. It is torture to listen to you banter with that pea brain producer, Jake. It's talk radio . . . the callers make the show!
    { "Thumbs Up":"1","Thumbs Down":"-1" }
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