PORT ORCHARD — A nurse who should have been working her shift in a hospital intensive care unit this weekend will instead be remembered as a victim of an impaired driving crash.

Friends, family and law enforcement will gather Saturday, Feb. 18 to dedicate a DUI emphasis patrol covering parts of Kitsap and Pierce counties to Ashley Allpin Riibe, 30, who was killed by a driver who had been drinking and was three times over the legal alcohol consumption limit.

Beginning at 8 p.m., an event to remember Riibe will be conducted at the Kitsap County Commissioner’s Chambers in Port Orchard. The event is open to the public. It is sponsored jointly by the Traffic Safety Task Forces in Kitsap and Pierce counties and will be hosted by the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office and the Gig Harbor Police Department.

Riibe, who grew up in Gig Harbor, was traveling on a divided highway in Yankton County, South Dakota, on Nov. 30, 2015, when a 31-year-old male driver hit her while driving on her side of the highway. Following the crash that set her car on fire, the transplanted Northwesterner was transported to a nearby hospital not far from Sanford Hospital in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where she had recently landed her dream job caring for critically ill patients. Riibe died later at that hospital.

“The irony of a woman passionate about saving lives (losing) hers needlessly is one that goes without saying,” said Marsha Masters, Mothers Against Drunk Driving-Kitsap board member.

“By dedicating this patrol to Ashley, we want people to understand that the pain to families and communities never goes away whenever and wherever a preventable crash like this occurs.”

Immediately following the dedication to the Gig Harbor native, officers from multiple cities, counties and state law-enforcement agencies in Kitsap and Pierce counties, and members of Pierce County’s Target Zero DUI team will begin hunting for drivers impaired by alcohol and/or drugs. A mobile center in Gig Harbor will be operated by the Washington State Patrol to process arrested drivers and keep arresting officers on the road for as long as possible.

Three police chiefs and four officers from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board will make visits to bars in both counties as part of the task force Home Safe Bar program to ensure bar owners, managers and patrons observe the state’s alcohol laws and choose sober rides home.

“What Ashley’s crash reminds us is that without drivers caring enough to change their risk-taking behavior, things on the road will not always go well, said John Cheesman, chief of the Fircrest Police Department and chairman of the Pierce County Traffic Safety Task Force.

“It’s often just a yellow line that separates us from an impaired driver. And sometimes, at great and needless peril, people cross that line,” Cheesman said.