New bill would allow ignition interlock driver's licenses
OLYMPIA -- State lawmakers and the Washington State Patrol are coming to propose a new bill that they hope will crack down on the number of drunk drivers in our state.
The State Patrol says they arrest some 20,000 drunk drivers a year. In the hopes of curbing those numbers, Democratic State Senator Marilyn Rasmussen of Eatonville is co-sponsoring a bill called "Ignition Interlock Driver's License."
D.U.I. defendants can apply for the licenses immediately, even if the court's suspended or revoked their standard license. But they must install the alcohol detecting device on their car.
"When you get into that car you have to blow into a device that determines whether or not you've been drinking," Capt. DeVere with State Patrol explained.
If the device senses the driver has been drinking, the car won't start.
"The interlock device is the best way we can reach everyone that has a suspended license," Sen. Rasmussen said.
It's a change in tactic from the senator's original plan to curb DUIs. Back in 1995, she helped pass a bill that gave police the option to impound and sell a drunk driver's car after a second DUI conviction.
But police were rarely enforcing it. So back in May, Rasmussen pledged to make the law mandatory. But a court decision declared it was unconstitutional to make it a mandatory requirement.
Law enforcement pleaded with her, saying the law is cumbersome, doesn't always work and costs too much.
"It was funding we didn't have and in most cases we didn't have the ability to seize the car," DeVere said.
The new proposal is not the seismic shift in state law she hoped, so she'll keep working to keep drunk drivers off the road.
"It never stops until we've got the job done, until there's a solution," she said.
There will be a public hearing on the house version of this new DUI bill at the Capitol Wednesday.
The State Patrol says they arrest some 20,000 drunk drivers a year. In the hopes of curbing those numbers, Democratic State Senator Marilyn Rasmussen of Eatonville is co-sponsoring a bill called "Ignition Interlock Driver's License."
D.U.I. defendants can apply for the licenses immediately, even if the court's suspended or revoked their standard license. But they must install the alcohol detecting device on their car.
"When you get into that car you have to blow into a device that determines whether or not you've been drinking," Capt. DeVere with State Patrol explained.
If the device senses the driver has been drinking, the car won't start.
"The interlock device is the best way we can reach everyone that has a suspended license," Sen. Rasmussen said.
It's a change in tactic from the senator's original plan to curb DUIs. Back in 1995, she helped pass a bill that gave police the option to impound and sell a drunk driver's car after a second DUI conviction.
But police were rarely enforcing it. So back in May, Rasmussen pledged to make the law mandatory. But a court decision declared it was unconstitutional to make it a mandatory requirement.
Law enforcement pleaded with her, saying the law is cumbersome, doesn't always work and costs too much.
"It was funding we didn't have and in most cases we didn't have the ability to seize the car," DeVere said.
The new proposal is not the seismic shift in state law she hoped, so she'll keep working to keep drunk drivers off the road.
"It never stops until we've got the job done, until there's a solution," she said.
There will be a public hearing on the house version of this new DUI bill at the Capitol Wednesday.