OLYMPIA — A Senate committee on Tuesday advanced a bill to make changes to the state’s impaired driving laws, including making driving under the influence a felony on the fourth conviction, rather than the current law that has it at five within 10 years.
The legislation was sparked by recent fatal accidents in the state, including a March incident where a suspected drunken driver slammed into a family crossing the street in a residential Seattle neighborhood, a crash that critically injured a 10-day-old child and his mother and killed his grandparents.
The measure approved by the Senate Law & Justice Committee would require a mandatory arrest if a person has a prior offense within the past decade and increases mandatory minimum jail time for repeat offenders.
The bill now heads to the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
