In the present special session, both houses in the Legislature have bills before them that are focused on strengthening DUI laws.

The competing bills in each house have these essential elements in common:

• Felony DUI: Current law requires it to be the 5th DUI in 10 years. Each bill would change that to the 4th;
• Stronger penalties (jail and financial) for repeat DUI offenders including treatment options;
• Mandatory arrest and booking into jail for repeat DUI offenders;
• Mandatory Ignition Interlock Devices for repeat DUI offenders as condition of release;
• Increased penalty for DUI drivers with children under 16 in the car;
• Aggravated circumstance available when DUI or felony driver is wrong-way on highway.

Both versions also harmonize impaired driving laws with the state’s new legal intoxicant, marijuana, making it clear that driving while impaired can be not only DUI, but also negligent driving and affect commercial driving licenses.

The Legislature is right to focus on the repeat, chronic impaired driver and those with extremely high BAC levels as the best target for our scarce public safety resources. Of the 156 Washington State citizens killed in impaired driving incidents in 2011, 74 percent involved a driver with a BAC of more than .15, nearly twice the legal limit of .08. Repeat DUI offenders account for about 17% of all arrests, but pose an inordinate public safety risk.

It is important to note that we have made progress as a society in bringing awareness to impaired driving. Twenty-five years ago, 27,253 people were killed in collisions caused by drunk drivers in the United States. In 2011, that number was reduced to 9,878. That’s a 64% decrease in alcohol-related traffic fatalities each year. Public awareness of the dangers of drunk driving, tougher enforcement and penalties, better treatment options for those struggling with substance abuse, and even improved vehicle safety are all contributors to this extraordinary drop.

But 9,878 deaths are still too many, and it does not count the lives shattered by serious injuries sustained by victims of vehicular assault. We can do better, in the prevention and the response to driving under the influence.
Used with permission from the Prosecutor’s Post by Daniel Satterberg Prosecuting Attorney of King County.