Legislature passes bill to strengthen DUI law

OLYMPIA - The Legislature has passed a bill designed to curtail driving while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

House Bill 1493 - contains language introduced by Sen. Mike Padden, R-Spokane Valley - passed the house 69-27 on March 6. It passed the Senate unanimously Feb. 29.

The bill awaits Gov. Jay Inslee's signature to become law.

"The passage of this bill is a major step toward making our roads and highways safer," said Padden, Republican leader on the Senate Law and Justice Committee. "It includes provisions that will keep more repeat impaired drivers off the road."

An amendment approved by the Senate on Feb. 29 added language from Senate Bill 5032, a measure from Padden that would expand the period for reviewing prior convictions of impaired driving to 15 years, from the 10 years now in state law, when determining whether a new offense of impaired driving is charged as a felony.

The policy language from Padden's Senate Bill 5032 also increases the penalty to a felony offense, rather than a gross misdemeanor, for anyone with three or more prior DUI offenses within that "lookback" period.

"I'm pleased that the 'lookback' language added to House Bill 1493 by the Senate stayed in the final version passed by the House today," Padden said.

Padden said many traffic fatalities in the state involve drivers who have had as many as eight DUI offenses, but he noted the current 10-year lookback period is not long enough to allow the state to impose stronger punishment against such offenders.

"Repeat impaired-driving offenders commit most of the vehicular homicides and vehicular assaults in Washington. The Legislature now has passed a bill to prevent those horrible and senseless crimes," said Padden, a former Spokane County District Court judge.

According to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, there were 740 traffic deaths in the state in 2022 (the most in more than 30 years), including 389 fatalities involving drug- or alcohol-impaired driving. There were 674 traffic deaths in 2021, including 345 fatalities involving impaired driving. In 2020, Washington had 574 traffic fatalities, including 282 involving impaired driving.