Dec. 26, 2024
By Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison
Special to the Seattle Times
As we are in the midst of the holiday season and the start of the legislative session is upon us, I’m focusing on a problem that needs immediate attention.
We all recognize that driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs is a grave danger on our roadways. Tragically, DUI-related fatalities in Washington state have risen 96% in the past decade.
There is one commonsense step that our legislators can take in the upcoming legislative session, which opens Jan. 13, to help reduce impaired driving: Address the massive backlog of DUI cases at the state toxicology lab. Today, the state toxicology lab takes on average over 400 days to return toxicology results necessary to proceed with many DUI cases.
In Seattle, where my office prosecutes DUIs, our Police Department refers over 1,000 DUI cases each year. The state toxicology lab backlog means we are just now receiving results for DUI arrests that occurred in the first half of 2023.
We need our Washington legislators to modify state law to allow private, nationally accredited labs to test DUI toxicology samples. This is a key factor in the fight to reduce DUI driving. Here’s why:
I am committed to aggressively pursuing DUI cases where the evidence supports the charge. To prove the DUI charge beyond a reasonable doubt, our prosecutors often need the toxicology report showing what substance was impairing the driver and in what volume. This is particularly true now because more than half the DUIs at my office are from drugs, not alcohol.
Under Washington law, the State Patrol toxicology lab is the only lab allowed to process the blood samples. Since 2014, there has been about a 50% increase in the number of cases submitted to the state tox lab. Despite opening a new facility, the state toxicology lab has been unable to keep up with this increase.
The toxicology lab delays create a host of problems in the effort to pursue justice and improve public safety. A DUI suspect will likely spend that year without supervision, maybe driving impaired again during that time. Witnesses may move away or be unavailable. Juries may find it hard to understand why they are hearing about something from so long ago.
Consider this: if a possible DUI is referred by Seattle police to my office today, under the current system tox lab results might not arrive until sometime in 2026. And note that there’s a two-year statute of limitations from the time of arrest, so the clock is ticking while our prosecutors can do nothing on the case but wait.
Allowing accredited private toxicology labs to do the testing — which is done in more than half the states, including Oregon, Colorado, New York and New Jersey — would be a smart step to solving the backlog and helping improve roadway safety.
Thankfully, Rep. David Hackney, supported by Rep. Andrew Barkis (both on the Transportation Committee), is introducing legislation to address this very problem. This isn’t just about government working more efficiently, although that is clearly needed. This is about what we can do to improve public safety on our roads right now.
Legislators must pass this bill to allow alternatives to process the blood samples so we, as a society, can better send the message that we take our road safety seriously and will hold accountable anyone putting all of us at risk because of impaired driving.
(Note: this opinion piece by CA Davison was published in the Dec. 26, 2024 edition of the Seattle Times.)