Swack’s Convincing Drivers To Put Cork In It But Spokane Restaurant Still In Top Five Places Mentioned

Swackhammer’s Restaurant no longer has the distinction of being the top place in Washington drunken drivers identify as the last spot they had one for the road.

And that’s good news to the ears of co-owner Tom Lynch.

“Every year we look to see what we can do better,” Lynch said. “I think we’ve always worked very hard with police.”

Still, a top-five ranking hardly means the work is over.

The Liquor Control Board reports that from April 1995 to April 1996, Swackhammer’s was mentioned 22 times as the last place drunken drivers said they drank.

“It’s an ongoing process,” Lynch said.

“Because we cater to a young crowd, we have to train them (to drink in moderation) because they usually don’t train themselves.”

Ahead of Swackhammer’s on the list was For Pete’s Sake in Oak Harbor, mentioned 28 times; Bart’s in Longview, with 24 reports and the Hi Five in Fife and J.A. Michael’s in Port Orchard, each with 23 reports.

And of the top 50 mentioned on the list, Spokane’s Thadeus T. Thudpuckers ranked 32nd with 12 reports and the Goodtymes Pub followed with 11.

During the time period studied, 5,558 people arrested for drunken driving in Washington said they took their last drink at one of the state’s 11,000 licensed liquor establishments.

And that number may be higher. Many people arrested for drunken driving refuse to say where they drank or lie about the location.

“They say they were with friends or nowhere,” said Chris Powell, spokesman for the Washington State Patrol in Spokane. “They’re trying to protect an establishment.”

And Lynch said that sometimes works the other way around.

He said that many arrests take place long after Swackhammer’s stops serving alcohol at 1:15 a.m. But the supermarket across the street from his establishment sells alcohol until 2 a.m.

“If they get caught they’re going to say they were in here last because it’s also illegal to have open containers in an automobile,” Lynch said.

The state Liquor Control Board said it’s difficult for its 65 agents to enforce laws intended to prevent bartenders from serving blatantly drunken patrons.

However, police reports serve as a tip sheet, alerting agents to the establishments named by drunken drivers. Still, the penalties for serving drunks are not great.

“We use this information as a red flag to tell us there might be a problem with the establishment,” said board spokeswoman Gigi Zenk.

For Pete’s Sake in Oak Harbor was fined $250 last year after an undercover investigation found one obviously drunk customer being served liquor.

The liquor board first tries to work with a business. They hold training sessions to show a bar’s staff how to recognize obvious signs of drunkenness: unsteadiness, mood swings, slurred speech, a blank look on the face. They urge bar staff to call cabs for patrons who are obviously drunk.

They also teach them how to cut off drinkers who’ve had too much without starting a conflict, said Carter Mitchell, spokesman for the Liquor Control Board.

If the cooperative approach fails, undercover agents are assigned to watch for overserving, so a business can be disciplined, Mitchell said.

Lynch said for the last two New Year’s Eve’s, Swackhammer’s had two undercover agents in the nightclub area.

“In 14 years we’ve never been written up by the control board,” he said.

Swackhammer’s and its adjoining nightclub have held the record for the last six years for the number of customers arrested on suspicion of drunken driving, state records show.

In the past year, the board issued 598 “corrective actions,” generally verbal or written warnings against liquor businesses. Of those, 182 eventually became fines or license suspensions because of overserving, Mitchell said.

In the worst cases, a bar could lose its license. The board typically revokes about a dozen licenses a year for different reasons, including overserving and serving minors, Mitchell said. The minimum penalty for overserving is a $250 fine or a five-day license suspension.

According to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, 37,000 drunken-driving arrests were made last year. And fatalities involving drunken drivers fell from 271 in 1991 to 207 last year.

There is no way to determine how many drunken driving deaths were caused by people who were overserved at particular bars.

In Washington, a blood-alcohol level of 0.10 constitutes intoxication under the law. The average blood alcohol level of those arrested was 0.166. For a 160-pound person, that condition can be reached by drinking nine beers - or other drinks containing the same ounce of alcohol - in an hour.

The highest blood-alcohol reading in the 12 months surveyed was the 0.386, recorded on Oct. 14, 1995, by a man who said he’d been drinking at The Golden Wheel Restaurant in Yakima.

Activists seeking to reduce drunken driving say the Liquor Control Board should do more with the reports of where drivers drank.

Jim Bostad, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in King and Pierce counties, believes the names of bars mentioned by drunken drivers should be more widely publicized.

“I’d like to see them put it in the paper,” said Bostad. “We need to be aware where big drinkers come from.”

And some victims try to seek damages from bars.

One such lawsuit, filed in Spokane recently, accuses the owners of Outback Jack’s World Famous Kangaroo Club of being negligent in selling alcohol to James Barstad, who subsequently ran a red light, killing two people and injuring five. Barstad faces first-degree murder charges in the May incident.

Outback Jack’s, mentioned seven times in the Liquor Control Board reports in the past year, denied its employees were negligent. Owner Don Goligoski said Barstad came in with his girlfriend, had a pitcher of beer and left.

Bar owners, meanwhile, say it’s not easy to police their clientele.

“A lot of them come in pretty much drunk,” said Vicki Braicks, owner of For Pete’s Sake. “It’s hard to observe how much they had.”

Like Bostad, Linda Thompson believes it is important to identify businesses that produce drunken drivers. Her 3-year-old son was killed several years ago by a driver who spent the night drinking in a bar and then got beer at a convenience store.

Now she runs a program that brings victims face-to-face with people convicted of drunken driving, in an effort to stress the potential tragic effects of their actions.

“People continue to drink and drive,” Thompson said. “Businesses have to take a stand.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SOBERING FACTS Facts from the Liquor Control Board’s reports on 5,558 arrests for drunken driving, from April 1995 to April 1996:

Times Busiest, 2-3 a.m., 1,348 reports. Slowest, 10-11 a.m., 4 reports.

Days About one in four arrests was on a Saturday, one in five on Sunday, one in six on Friday.

Dates Highest one-day number of reports was 43, logged March 23 and Nov. 14. Busiest month was March with 600 reports. Slowest was July, with 328.

Blood-alcohol level Average for arrested people, 0.166, equivalent of nine beers or mixed drinks consumed by a 160-pound person in a short time. Highest was 0.386 for a person arrested in Yakima on Oct. 14, 1995, at the Golden Wheel Restaurant.

Drunkest drunks Jim Manning’s Doo Wop Diner in Shelton was named by seven drivers who registered 0.200 or higher, double the legal standard.

Most mentioned place For Pete’s Sake Steakhouse, Oak Harbor, mentioned by 28 drunken drivers.

Largest watering hole Kingdome, Seattle, mentioned 13 times.

Cities with most DWI arrests Seattle, 550 drunken drivers arrested; Spokane, 302; Tacoma, 288; Vancouver, 156; Kent, 116; Bellevue, 115; Kirkland, 110; Bellingham, 109; Everett, 106; and Renton, 99.

Cities with fewest DWI arrests Chattaroy, Clearlake, Darrington and Graham, 3 each. - Associated Press

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = From staff and wire reports Staff writer Kevin Blocker contributed to this report.