Drunk Driving DUI Law

The Washington State Supreme Court said Thursday that the only survivor of a car crash that killed six people in 2001 should not have been convicted as an accomplice to drunken driving.

Teresa Hedlund, who was seriously injured in the one-car wreck on July 21, 2001, near the SuperMall in Auburn, was convicted in 2003. She was 28 at the time of the crash.

In a 5-4 ruling released Thursday, the high court upheld an earlier ruling by the state Court of Appeals, which said state law does not allow a victim of a DUI also to be charged as an accomplice.

The Supreme Court also reversed Hedlund’s convictions for furnishing alcohol and tobacco to a minor. The high court agreed that those charges should have been tried separately and evidence allowed at the trial on the DUI charge was prejudicial to Hedlund.