Over 30% of traffic deaths in Boise involve alcohol. City says DUI enforcement is not enough
It’s a Saturday night, and you’re out for drinks with friends in downtown Boise. Down the bar, you see someone ordering shot after shot. He’s swaying, slurring his speech and getting belligerent — but the bartender keeps the drinks flowing.
Then, he picks up his car keys and heads for the door.
What do you do? What does the bartender do? The decision could have life-or-death consequences.
Amid a spike in traffic deaths and injuries in 2023 — the Idaho Transportation Department reported a 20-year high in traffic deaths, including 31 in Ada County — Boise officials doubled down to determine the causes.
They found a wide range of contributing factors, including road designs that prioritize speed, insufficient crosswalks and sketchy bicycle lanes. But one of the most pervasive contributors has been drunken driving, said Jimmy Hallyburton, a Boise City Council member and a longtime bike safety advocate.
“A really large amount of the traffic-related fatalities have to do with some sort of substance abuse, and oftentimes that substance is alcohol,” Hallyburton told the Idaho Statesman. The city’s Traffic Fatality Review Task Force, which Hallyburton spearheads, found the same patterns in Idaho and nationwide data.
In 2024, five of the 16 fatal crashes in Boise involved alcohol, according to the Idaho Transportation Department’s crash database. In 2023, seven of 17 fatal crashes in Boise involved alcohol.
Statewide, 55 of about 220 fatal crashes in 2024 involved alcohol, while about 50 of about 240 fatal crashes in 2023 involved alcohol, according to the database.
Online bartender training inadequate, ex-club owner says
Boise and some of its surrounding cities require those who serve alcohol to take a training online or in-person, said Susie Stertz, a training provider and former owner of Boise’s Emerald Club. But many bartenders opt to take the training online, which is “not going to get them anywhere,” she said, because it doesn’t give them the chance to talk through specific scenarios that may arise with customers.
Indeed, Boise Police Officer Cameron Kolos said he’s found in recent years that many of the more than 650 businesses with alcohol licenses in Boise were “really lacking in awareness” of the requirements and responsibility that came with serving alcohol. Serving alcohol to someone who is “visibly, obviously or apparently intoxicated” is illegal in Idaho, and businesses that serve alcohol past that point could be held responsible, he said.
“If we have a serious collision, or bodily injury occurs, or a fatality occurs, or we can determine that there’s negligence in the fact of how intoxicated somebody is coming out of an establishment, then we could launch what we call a source investigation, which essentially is tracing back of where the alcohol came from, and if there was any sort of negligence that occurred,” Kolos said. “But we want to take the education route.”
So he’s organized training sessions to help bartenders and others practice scenarios: identifying when it’s time to cut someone off, and how to do that without sparking a confrontation. In a January meeting, Hallyburton urged Boise’s City Council to allocate more resources to efforts like this.
“We really want servers and bartenders to be aware and take the extra minute to decide — you know, tips are important, but we’re not just looking to try to sell the most that we can,” Kolos told the Statesman.
Boise seeks ‘amplifier effect’ of alcohol training
Stertz echoed Kolos’ concerns.
“The first thing that a bartender, especially a new bartender, will say is, ‘Why doesn’t the patron have to take responsibility for themselves if they over-drink? That’s their problem,’” she said. “You are the same as a pharmacist. You are serving a dose of medication. And this person’s brain is being fed this medication, and consequently, it messes with their common sense.
“As bartenders, we turn a lot of people into monsters,” she said. “So we’re supposed to be responsible as the sober bartender and say, ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t serve you anymore.’”
A January class Kolos organized had 300 attendees and revealed “a lot of demand” for future training, he said. The department plans to roll out additional training sessions in the coming months that will be free to the public, he said.
“That earlier-on prevention makes a really huge difference,” Hallyburton said. If one bar gets dinged for over-serving alcohol, it may boost its own employee training.
Business owners also “typically talk to the other bars and let the other bars know, ‘Hey, they’re beginning to crack down on over-serving. Be careful,’” he said. “There’s sort of an amplifier effect.”
