Governor Inslee has signed a bill that makes new laws regarding DUI and Physical Control. Briefly stated the new law:

• Amends RCW 10.31.100 so that a police officer must arrest and take into custody repeat DUI offenders – This is modeled after mandatory booking for domestic violence offenders.
• Provides funding to allow prosecutors to rush file on repeat DUI offenders who are booked into jail.
• As a condition of release from custody before arraignment or trial, a defendant who has a prior DUI, PC, vehicular homicide, or vehicular assault offense must be ordered to have a functioning Ignition Interlock Device installed. (must blow on device to start the vehicle)
• Ensures that prior convictions will count in the offender score for felony DUIs. (increases punishment for present offence)
• Ensures that Department of Corrections (DOC) must supervise offenders convicted of vehicular homicide, vehicular assault, or felony DUI or PC regardless of risk classification.
• If a person is convicted of DUI or PC and the offense was committed while a passenger under the age of 16 was in the vehicle, additional incarceration must be ordered as: 24 hours if the person has no prior offenses; five days if the person has one prior offense within seven years; and ten days if the person has two or three prior offenses within seven years.
• When setting penalties for DUI and PC offenses, the court must particularly consider whether during the commission of the offense, the defendant was driving in the opposite direction of the normal flow of traffic on a multiple-lane highway with a posted speed limit of 45 miles per hour or greater.
• A person is disqualified from driving a commercial motor vehicle for a minimum of one year if a report is received by DOL that the person was convicted of driving a motor vehicle with any measurable amount of THC (marijuana) in the person’s system.
• Municipalities are authorized to establish DUI courts and to provide DUI court services. Courts are prohibited from deferring sentences for DUI or PC of intoxicating liquor or any drug.

There are other changes, but these are the main ones. I hope these increased penalties will reduce the number of deaths and alcohol related crashes that destroy so many lives and families.
(adapted with permission from WAPA summary)