DUI law gets tougher Sunday

Washington drunken-driving laws will stiffen starting Sunday, but the criminal penalty for drinking and getting behind the wheel still lags behind other states.

Legislation approved last year makes a fifth non-injury DUI conviction within 10 years a felony.

In a majority of states, the third or fourth DUI conviction is a felony, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures and individual state statutes.

“The new law isn’t perfect, but it’s a start,” said Rep. John Ahern, R-Spokane, who championed the new bill into law last year.

“We’ve just got to keep working on it,” Ahern said in a press release. “We’ve got to tell people that some forms of behavior are just not acceptable and won’t be tolerated. People’s lives are at stake.”

An average of 256 people are killed in Washington each year in drunken-driving-related crashes, said State Patrol spokesman Trooper Mark Baker.

Nationwide, “we quietly lose 20,000 people every year to DUI collisions,” Baker said.

Drunken driving is a felony on the second conviction in New York, Indiana and Oklahoma, according to state statutes.

In Idaho, drunken driving is a felony on the third conviction. However, there’s a caveat in Idaho’s DUI law: the second conviction is a felony if a person has a 0.20 percent blood alcohol level or above. The legal limit in Idaho is 0.08, as it is in Washington.

Ahern said Washington’s new law is a big step, but he’s going to continue pushing for stricter laws.

During the 2007 legislative session, Ahern proposed making three DUI convictions in a seven-year period a felony, but that was rejected, he said.

When asked why he was so passionate about putting away drunk drivers, he said Friday: “I’ve had an awful lot of people who have contacted me because they’ve lost their son or daughter in drunken driving collisions. You hear enough of these stories and you have to do something about it.”

At least six states have lesser penalties than Washington. In Georgia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and New Jersey non-injury DUI convictions do not rise to the felony level, according to state statutes. In Wisconsin, drunken driving is treated as a civil conviction, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

North Dakota’s drunken-driving laws mirror those of Washington. But hopping around from state to state will not help to evade DUI laws.

A person’s DUI record could follow them if it’s traced. And if a person has four DUI convictions, their fifth becomes a felony in Washington, said Spokane County Deputy Prosecutor Clint Francis.