Lucy Aldrich was afraid she was going to see someone die. As darkness fell on the Puget Sound Monday evening, she was riding with a friend through Kitsap County on her way home to Sequim when she spotted a newer model, white Chevy S10 just outside of Gorst. The pickup truck was swerving, going from the road’s shoulder then to the median, nearly hitting the dividers.

Aldrich did what she felt was right: She called 911. Over the course of the next half hour, she and her friend followed the pickup truck, their flashers on, to warn other drivers. Between Gorst and the Hood Canal Bridge, she called 911 three more times. Each time she provided mile markers to give dispatchers the most descriptive locations she could provide. Each call, she said, was more desperate than the last.

“I just sat there thinking I was going to have to watch someone die,” she said. “There is absolutely no reason on this earth why he should have gotten that far.”

The Washington State Patrol, the agency to which the calls were being routed, agrees.

“We dropped the ball on this one,” said state patrol Spokeswoman Krista Hedstrom.

When calls of erratic drivers are dispatched to the state patrol, any patrolman who is in the vicinity is routed to intercept the driver, she said.

“We take every call seriously. We just can’t be everywhere at once, unfortunately,” Hedstrom said.

The driver of the truck was eventually arrested on the Jefferson County side of the Hood Canal Bridge, Hedstrom said. The arresting trooper determined the driver was under the influence of an illegal substance, not alcohol, and took a blood sample at the scene.

In an ideal world, there would be enough state troopers to catch every impaired driver, every time. But this is not an ideal world.

So far this year, the Washington State Patrol has pulled 307 drivers off the road in Kitsap County who were suspected of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The lingering question is, how many have not been caught?

Aldrich did the responsible thing — she and her friend stayed close enough to keep an eye on the driver, but far away enough to be safe.

That this situation occurred — and plays out on the state’s roadways every day — is frightening. It comes down to personal responsibility — responsible adults don’t take illegal drugs or get behind the wheel after they’ve been drinking.

Impaired drivers put their lives, and the lives of others, at risk. For this, there is no excuse.