OLYMPIA—State lawmakers shared stories of people killed and families destroyed by drunk driving as they united behind sweeping reforms to crack down on drunk drivers and provide more help to their victims.
For Representatives Steve Tharinger (D – Dungeness) and Kevin Van De Wege (D – Sequim), today’s votes were about people like Ben Merscher, a 25-year-old with a promising future who was killed in 2009 by a drunk driver on Highway 101. Or Ellen DeBondt, a nurse who died last year when a drunk driver collided with her vehicle on Highway 112.
“These losses leave behind families and friends who will never be the same,” Tharinger said. “Our communities have begged the Legislature to take action, and today we did.”
The drunk driving reforms passed today include bills co-sponsored by Tharinger and Van De Wege:
- HB 2216 makes the penalty for vehicular homicide involving drunk driving equal to the penalty for manslaughter (Passed 98-0).
- HB 2302 increases financial penalties for drunk driving offenses when a child under age 16 is in the car—and triples the amount of time an ignition interlock device must be on the offender’s vehicles, from 60 days to six months. (Passed 98-0).
- HB 2405 allows courts to order drunk drivers who kill a parent to pay child support for the victim’s minor children. (Passed 95-3).
Clallam County Prosecutor Deb Kelly says that today’s passage of HB 2216 is an encouraging step, and conveyed her thanks Tharinger and Van De Wege for their support.
“The current penalty of 31 to 41 months for killing by driving drunk is simply not a just result. Nor does it adequately take the killers off our roads,” she said. “HB 2216 moves our state closer both to justice for mourning families and increased community safety by incarcerating such offenders for a significantly longer time.”
Additionally, both Tharinger and Van De Wege voted to advance the following bills out of the House today:
- HB 2176, which prevents drunk drivers who kill or harm from using the statute of limitations to duck court-ordered payments to victims. Victims can ensure the drunk driver’s debt cannot be extinguished until it is paid in full. (Passed 93-4).
- HB 2443, which strengthens Washington’s nation-leading ignition-interlock program by adding cameras to the devices—at no cost to the state—to prevent offenders from gaming the system. Other reforms in the bill increase offender liability for emergency-response costs, prevent felony DUI offenses from being vacated by courts, and add “huffing” chemical vapors to the conditions that fall under DUI laws. (Passed 98-0).
First-time DUI offenders will also pay far more for their crimes under reforms approved today. The House voted 85-11 for HB 1556, which triples the mandatory minimum sentence for a first-time DUI offense from one day to three days in jail—and requires the offender to pay for the cost of incarceration.
Van De Wege said the reforms passed today would mean more accountability for offenders and more justice for victims and their families.
“No law can ever bring back a loved one who has been killed by someone driving under the influence,” Van De Wege said. “But these overdue reforms will help save other lives, and we’re putting those who choose to drink and drive on notice that our state will not go easy on them.”