Proposed Changes for 2011

Washington state lawmakers have laid out their plan for changes to DUI laws that are coming down the pike in 2011.

THC Limit for Impaired Drivers Proposed

State Representative Roger Goodman is proposing a bill that would set a THC limit for impaired drivers. He says there is research to support that eight nanograms per milliliter of blood is the threshold for impairment. THC stays in your bloodstream a long time, so it is not fair to charge someone who has THC in his or her system that is not officially impaired. Goodman said this threshold or THC limit in the blood stream would help law enforcement separate the impaired from the unimpaired. This THC threshold will need to be determined by a blood test given within two hours of the arrest.

The next proposed change comes from the a case that happened back in June, where a Federal Way teen, Derek King, was killed by an alleged drunk driver. The defendant in that case, Alexander Peder, was a repeat offender with two prior DUIs that a judge reduced to negligent driving. Goodman says that this is not uncommon. He proposes that if a plea deal is going to be allowed, the judge must either suspend the defendant’s driver’s license or require an ignition interlock device to be installed.

Harsher Sentences for Fatal DUI Crashes Proposed

The third proposed change calls for harsher sentences for fatal DUI crashes. This bill is being presented by King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg based on the King case as well. With regard to this proposed change, he said, “we punish the reckless use of a weapon whether it’s a gun or a knife as a First Degree Manslaughter for a death, so why should the reckless use of a car particularly at the hands of a drunk why should that somehow be less?”

Goodman and Satterberg plan to file the bills at the 2011 legislator’s session on January 10^th.