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Issaquah police officers plan to join a regional push to pull drunken drivers from local roads as summer comes to a close.

The agency is joining other police departments in King County — and more than 10,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide — from Aug. 19 to Sept. 5 in the Drive Hammered, Get Nailed campaign.

Beneath the clever title is a serious message about the impacts of drunken driving and driving under the influence. DUI crashes claimed 38 people on King County roads last year.

During the Drive Hammered, Get Nailed campaign last year, officers on routine and extra patrols arrested 438 people for DUI. Overall, prosecutors charged 9,521 people countywide for DUI last year.

Besides the Issaquah Police Department, the Drive Hammered, Get Nailed campaign includes the nearby Bellevue, Newcastle, North Bend, Sammamish, Snoqualmie and Renton police departments, in addition to the Washington State Patrol.
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The numbers show the Washington State Patrol is tough on drunken drivers: Troopers arrested almost 20,000 last year.

For the effort, the International Association of Chiefs of Police named the Washington State Patrol as the top DUI enforcement agency in North America.

The honor recognizes agencies for “year-round efforts to detect and apprehend impaired drivers and to address impaired driving through policies, officer training, and public information and education.” The state patrol is due to receive the award in October at the International Association of Chiefs of Police conference in Chicago.

Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste has told front-line troopers they have no higher priority than removing drunken drivers from the road.

“We consider every DUI arrest a potential life saved,” he said in a statement. “We never know which drunks will kill, but we know with certainty that some of them will. We’re committed to taking all of them off the road.”

Statewide, police agencies arrest about 40,000 impaired drivers each year. The state patrol accounts for about half of the total.
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Starting today, drivers can expect to have their vehicles towed when police officers arrest them on suspicion of DUI.

A new state law requiring officers to tow and impound drunken drivers’ vehicles for 12 hours went into effect at midnight.

“This is about making sure that impaired drivers don’t return to their cars and drive again before they’ve sobered up,” State Patrol Chief John Batiste said in a statement issued by the WSP. “This isn’t about trying to punish someone for driving drunk. If they’re found guilty, that will become the court’s job.”

Legislators intended to make roads safer when they drafted the law establishing the mandatory 12-hour vehicle holding period earlier this year. WSP Sgt. JJ Gundermann said it will keep impaired drivers away from the wheel after they have been arrested.

“Our main concern is to get the impaired drivers off the road and make sure that they don’t re-offend within that 12-hour period,” Gundermann said.
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Washington is about to get tougher DUI laws.

Under a bill Gov. Chris Gregoire signed into law Tuesday, the state will rely heavily on ignition interlock devices, which detect the alcohol in a driver’s breath, to crack down on drinking and driving.

“With this legislation we’ll get enough of these ignition interlock devices into the universe of drunk drivers’ cars to show that it is really one of the best options to reduce the carnage on our highways,” said Rep. Roger Goodman, the primary sponsor of House Bill 1789.

The bill, most of which goes into effect in September, requires more offenders to install ignition interlock devices in an effort to address the problem of pleading down. That happens when prosecutors agree to a reduced sentence for people who have been arrested for a DUI in order to avoid the expense of going to court.
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A new law, named after a Whatcom County woman injured by a drunk driver in 2007, will make it harder for impaired drivers to get back behind the wheel.

Gov. Chris Gergoire signed Senate Bill 5000, dubbed “Hailey’s Law,” on Wednesday, April 28. It requires law enforcement officers to impound the cars belonging to people they arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs for 12 hours. It’s meant to make sure people sober up before they can get access to a vehicle.

“This makes it – not worth it – but in a sense it does make it worth it because it means I went through this so somebody else doesn’t have to,” said Hailey.

Hailey spent 45 days in Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after the Jan. 4, 2007, crash and is still undergoing surgeries.
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Drunken drivers in Washington will have a harder time getting back behind the wheel under a bill Gov. Chris Gregoire signed into law Wednesday.

The new rules, dubbed “Hailey’s Law” after a woman who had a head-on collision with a drunk driver in 2007, require law enforcement officers to impound the vehicles belonging to people they arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs for 12 hours. It’s meant to make sure people sober up before they can get access to a vehicle.

“In a sense, it does make it worth it because it means I went through this so somebody else doesn’t have to,” said Hailey Huntley, the woman for whom Senate Bill 5000 was named.

Huntley said she’s still undergoing surgeries from her 2007 crash with a woman who had been arrested for drunken driving earlier the same day. The woman was taken home by a state trooper because the local jail was full and then called a taxi to go retrieve her car.

Huntley sued the Washington State Patrol and Whatcom County for negligence, and was awarded about $5.5 million in damages.

Capt. Jason Berry, a spokesman for the State Patrol, said the new law, which goes into effect in July, would clear up a dilemma that law enforcement officers find themselves in when they deal with impounding vehicles.

The Washington Supreme Court ruled in 2002 that the State Patrol couldn’t have an agency-wide rule requiring troopers to impound a car under certain conditions because officers needed to take into consideration whether a reasonable alternative existed.
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House Bill 1789, which broadens the prosecution of felony DUI defendants, was passed by the state Legislature with unanimous votes in both the House and Senate. Gov. Chris Gregoire should sign it into law.

Washington state has a DUI problem, as reflected in the number of people dying in DUI-related traffic accidents.

In 2009, 491 people died on Washington highways. That was the lowest number of traffic fatalities since 1955. Last year, the number of traffic deaths dropped even further — to 458. That’s the lowest number since the state began keeping records.

While the downward trend is encouraging, one related statistic is especially troubling. Of those 458 deaths, 41 percent involved drivers under the influence of intoxicants. That is far ahead of the national average of 32 percent.

Washington State Patrol Chief John Batiste has maintained that the state could reduce the number of DUI-related fatalities if officers were allowed to conduct DUI checkpoints.

Many states allow police to stop every driver going through a checkpoint to determine whether the driver is operating a motor vehicle under the influence. Civil rights advocates have successfully prevented Washington state from legalizing DUI checkpoints.
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A measure that would stiffen sentencing laws for driving under the influence has cleared the Washington Legislature.

House Bill 1789, which broadens the prosecution of felony DUI, now goes to Gov. Chris Gregoire for approval.

The News Tribune says the bill would make any subsequent DUI conviction a felony, if an offender has a prior felony DUI conviction. The measure also requires a person convicted of alcohol-related reckless driving or negligent driving to install a device that prevents a car from starting if alcohol is detected.

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The state Legislature has passed a new law that would direct police to impound the vehicles of DUI suspects for a minimum of 12 hours.

Known as “Hailey’s Law”, it was inspired by the case of Hailey Doe. Her car was hit head-on by a woman who had been cited for driving under the influence but was released, caught a taxi back to her car, and resumed driving.

Doe suffered a broken pelvis, leg and knee, a crushed foot and collapsed lungs. In the four years since the crash, she has had to undergo 15 surgeries.
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The WA House of Representatives recently approved a bill (House Bill 1789) seeking tougher anti-DUI laws, including a Tacoma lawmaker’s amendment that would throw a much heavier book at first-time offenders.

“Year after year, we pass laws that dance around the true remedies to this problem,” said State Rep. Steve Kirby, who is a member of the House Judiciary Committee where this DUI bill and similar proposals aimed at getting tougher with drunken drivers have been discussed this year.

“What we need are stronger deterrents to prevent people from becoming repeat offenders. We need to attack this problem right at the very beginning.”

The measure passed by the House and sent to the Senate today stiffens punishment by:

• Requiring a person convicted of reckless driving, under certain circumstances, or negligent driving in the first degree to install an ignition-interlock device.

•Providing that a person charged with certain misdemeanors related to driving under the influence of intoxicating liquor or any drug may not receive a deferred prosecution more than once within a 10-year period and not more than twice total.
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