Washington lawmakers consider lowering the BAC limit for drivers

OLYMPIA – State lawmakers are again considering lowering the legal limit allowed to drink before getting behind the wheel.

Members of the House Community Safety committee heard testimony Thursday on legislation that would lower the blood alcohol content limit in Washington from 0.08% to 0.05%.

If approved, Washington would join Utah and become the second state in the country with the lower limit. Around the world, more than 150 countries, including France, Germany, Italy, South Korea and Australia have implemented lower standards, while others have zero tolerance policies for alcohol.

Washington lowered the standard for blood alcohol levels from 0.10% to 0.08% in 1999. The proposal to further reduce the standard has the backing of Gov. Bob Ferguson, Nathan Olson, a senior policy adviser for the governor’s office, told the committee.

“DUIs aren’t caught by noticing that somebody is drunk. They’re caught by noticing that dangerous driving, and this bill won’t change that. It just updates the blood alcohol level in the law to a number that we know is impaired based on what we know from research today,” Olson said. “This bill will make our roads safer and ensure that Washingtonians don’t get behind the wheel when it would be dangerous to do so just because they’re under 0.08.”

Mark McKechine, external relations director for the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, told the committee that the current limit is misleading to drivers. According to a November study cited by McKechine, 1 in 4 of those who drink said they did not think they could be impaired if they were under 0.08.

“The current limit is currently sending them the wrong message and confusing them about when it is safe to drive,” McKechine said.

According to data from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, 36% of the 209 fatal crashes in Spokane County between 2017 and 2021 involved drivers who consumed alcohol before the crash. Across the state, 32% of fatal crashes during this time frame involved a driver who consumed alcohol.

The effects from driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.05% include reduced coordination, difficulty steering and a reduced response time, according to the traffic safety commission .

After Utah became the first state to lower its alcohol limit in 2018, total crashes fell by 9.6%, injury crashes fell by 10.8% and fatal crashes fell by 19.8% in the first 12 months, according to a study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

According to the annual DUI Report conducted by the Utah Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice, the number of DUI -related arrests have slightly increased since Utah adopted the lower limit, though the overall number of DUI crashes involving alcohol has fallen from 928 in 2018 to 826 in 2028.

While he noted that early data shows that fatal car crashes decreased by 10% last year, Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, the chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, said during a legislative preview event last week that he supports lowering the limit.

“We do need to move Washington state to the global norm, which is 0.05, and we’re going to continue to work on that,” Liias said. “We haven’t yet gotten a bill through the Senate, so we’re going to work on achieving that milestone, hopefully this year. It is a huge step that we could take to reduce those fatalities.”

State Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, ranking member on the transportation committee, said the state should focus on hiring more state patrol officers rather than lowering the limit.

“That will do a substantial amount to reduce the number of deaths,” King said. “But at this point, I don’t think going to 0.05 would make that much of a difference at all.”

The plan also received pushback from representatives of the state’s hospitality industry.

“The data shows that alcohol-related fatalities are overwhelmingly caused by drivers well above the 0.08 BAC,” said Daniel Olson, who represented the Washington Brewers Guild. “Drivers involved in the most serious crashes are typically far above any legal threshold, often repeat offenders and commonly involve multiple substances.”

Josh McDonald, who represented the Washington Wine Institute, said while staff are currently trained to detect when someone is above the 0.08 limit, similar training does not currently exist for a limit of 0.05.

“This creates a real challenge for frontline staff who are being asked to enforce a standard they are not equipped to assess,” McDonald said.

Washington faces a backlog of tests in the Washington state Toxicology lab. Russell Brown, executive director of the Washington Association of Prosecuting Attorneys, said the delays have resulted in cases being dropped.

“Even if we make these changes, and we hope that it will be a positive net change, the tox lab is so far backlogged, with many of our alcohol and poly substance, you’re waiting nearly two years to get a blood test back,” Brown said.

Lawmakers are separately considering separate legislation that would allow toxicology testing to be conducted by labs that abide by international forensic testing standards. Current law requires tests to be conducted by labs permitted by the state toxicologist to be admissible in court.

According to a December report from the Washington State Patrol, as of October, the state toxicology lab had a backlog of 16,870 DUI cases, with the median turnaround time of 21 months.