Life-saving DUI legislation wins House approval

February 18, 2008

OLYMPIA – DUI legislation passed tonight by the House could reduce drunken driving fatalities by 30 percent.  In 2006 numbers, that would have been more than 80 lives saved.

Rep. Roger Goodman, D-Kirkland, took inspiration for his bill from New Mexico, which passed a similar law three years ago and has seen alcohol-related road fatalities decline by over 30 percent. 

“In my mind, drunken driving is the greatest public safety threat facing our communities,” Goodman said.  “To address this chronic problem we’re now choosing to focus on an innovative way of holding drunken drivers accountable, a new strategy that we know will save lives.”

Goodman’s ignition interlock device proposal, House Bill 3254, would create a provisional license for drunken drivers who get an alcohol-detecting device installed in their vehicle.  This would allow them to drive legally, but with the knowledge that if they have any alcohol in their system, their car will go nowhere.

Current law suspends the licenses of DUI offenders, but the vast majority of them drive without a license anyway, around 75 percent.   Drivers without licenses are particularly dangerous on Washington’s roads, involved in 20 percent of all fatal crashes each year.

“Right now we’re penalizing people who break the law and drive drunk, by trying to suspend their freedom to drive—a right they’ve already shown they’re willing to abuse,” Goodman said.  “It doesn’t work and lives are being lost because of it.”

Goodman led a series of DUI meetings with legislators, law enforcement and victims groups over the interim to find ways to prevent drunken driving.  In 2006, the most recent year with data, 252 traffic fatalities were alcohol-related.

Those 252 traffic deaths account for 47 percent of all traffic fatalities.

Goodman’s bill passed the House unanimously and now goes to the Senate.