OLYMPIA… The recent Susan West DUI case and the upcoming long Fourth of July weekend (when people often hold parties that include alcohol) have again brought to the forefront the need for tougher DUI laws in Washington state. Senate Republicans today unveiled a package of bills they will introduce in the 2007 session aimed at reducing the number of DUIs and cracking down on DUI violators across the state.

The 2007 DUI legislative package will include bills that:

• Target adults who provide alcohol to minors;
• Investigate and evaluate the ignition interlock device law;
• Give the public a practical way to stay safe from DUI drivers; and
• Toughen the felony DUI law passed during the 2006 Legislative session.

“The goal of this package is to save lives and make our streets safer,” said Sen. Luke Esser, R-Bellevue. “The only way to accomplish that goal is with a comprehensive crackdown on repeat drunk drivers that both punishes offenders and prevents deadly accidents.”

Esser says he plans to sponsor a bill in 2007 that will change Washington’s current felony DUI law from the fifth DUI in 10 years to the fourth in 10 years. Esser will also sponsor a bill that would directly affect the type of situation brought to light by Susan West’s recent arrest. Under this bill anyone convicted of vehicular homicide (as West was in 1997) would face tougher felony penalties for any subsequent DUI conviction.

“A felony penalty for the fifth conviction in 10 years was only the beginning in the fight against repeat drunk drivers,” Esser said. “When the public heard about it, they were astounded that someone could still be convicted of driving drunk five times before receiving felony penalties. And they are astounded to learn that someone like Susan West is not facing felony penalties if convicted. The public’s instincts are right, and we should continue getting tougher on those reckless individuals who endanger everyone in their neighborhood.”

Sen. Dale Brandland, a former sheriff from Whatcom County, said he plans on looking into better enforcement of the 1998 ignition interlock device law. The law requires those convicted of a DUI to install a device preventing the car engine from starting if the driver has alcohol in his or her body.

Currently, Department of Licensing records as compared to industry numbers show a gap between the number of people who are required to have the device and the number of cars that actually have them installed. This may be because people are not renewing their licenses or it may indicate that some of those people are driving anyway, both without a license and without the interlocking device. Brandland wants the Legislature to take a close look at the overall effectiveness of the interlock devices and ways the state can make sure they are actually installed in the cars driven by those required to use them. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), interlocks have been shown to reduce recidivism of drunk driving offenses by 50 to 90 percent compared to those individuals who were not assigned an interlock.

“People’s lives depend on us making sure the rules we put in place are working,” Brandland said. “If there is a problem, or if people are getting around it, we need to know about it and remedy the problem.”

Senator Mike Carrell, R-Lakewood, will also be introducing legislation similar to what he proposed last session that would require persons convicted of a DUI to attach a special, very visible license plate to their vehicles for a period of one year.

“Letting the public know who’s guilty of a DUI will do two things,” Carrell said. “It will help the safe drivers on the road know who to avoid, and the ‘shame factor’ will act as a deterrent for those who might otherwise choose to drink and drive.”

According to MADD, approximately 20 states in the U.S. currently require DUI offenders to use special license plates, including Oregon.

Finally, Sen. Brad Benson, R-Spokane, is sponsoring a bill that would increase penalties for adults who provide alcohol to minors, often the cause of drinking and driving tragedies among young people. In his freshman year in the House, Benson sponsored a bill that would have increased the penalties for this crime from a $500 fine to a maximum of $5,000.

“In my district, we had cases of adults making thousands of dollars supplying alcohol to minors for parties,” Benson said. “Because the penalties in Washington are so low, these adults – if they got caught – would simply pay the fine and walk away with a wad of cash.

“Whatever the reason -- whether parents want to be looked upon favorably by their children, whether they mistakenly think it’s more responsible to host an alcohol-provided party at their home rather than assume their kids are going to drink somewhere else, or whether the adults are just plain making money off of it -- we need to put a stop to this,” Benson said.

Driving under the influence costs lives, and costs state taxpayers millions of dollars each year. Over their lifetime, one in four families will be affected by a drunk driver and three in every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash. Senate Republicans are hopeful this package of legislation will reduce that number significantly and save the lives of residents who use our roads.

“When we come back to Olympia in 2007, we plan on doing everything we can to put a stop to the threat posed by repeat drunk drivers,” Esser said. “On a pleasant summer night, people enjoy taking walks and riding their bikes, and they shouldn’t have to worry about their lives being destroyed by a repeat drunk driver. The time has come to take a stand against this very preventable crime.”

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For more information contact Erich R. Ebel at (360) 786-7395 or Catherine Trinh at (360) 786-7503.