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…