AN ACT Relating to failure to comply with traffic infraction laws; and amending RCW 46.64.020 and 46.52.120.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

Sec. 1. Section 46.64.020, chapter 12, Laws of 1961 as last amended by section 1, chapter 345, Laws of 1987 and RCW 46.64.020 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The legislature finds that:

(a) Traffic laws are necessary for the safe and expeditious flow of motor vehicle traffic.

(b) For traffic laws to be effective, they must be judiciously and fairly enforced. This enforcement includes the issuance of notices of infraction and citations and the assessment of fines and penalties.

(c) The adjudication of notices of infraction through a written and signed promise to respond as provided in this title is an integral and important part of the traffic law system.

(d) Approximately twenty percent of all people issued notices of infraction violate their written and signed promise to respond and obtain notices of failure to appear on their driving records. Through their actions, these people are destroying the effectiveness of the traffic law system and undermining the department of licensing regulatory control of drivers' licenses.

(e) Notices of failure to appear accumulated on a person's driving record shall be considered if they were issued after July 25, 1987.

(2) Any person ((~~wilfully~~)) violating his or her written and signed promise to appear in court or his or her written and signed promise to respond to a notice of traffic infraction, as provided in this title, is guilty of a misdemeanor regardless of the disposition of the charge upon which he or she was originally arrested or the disposition of the notice of infraction: PROVIDED, That a written promise to appear in court or a written promise to respond to a notice of traffic infraction may be complied with by an appearance by counsel: PROVIDED FURTHER, That a person charged under RCW 46.20.021 with driving with an expired driver's license may respond by mailing to the court within fifteen days of the violation, a copy of the person's currently valid driver's license. Any person who has been issued a notice of infraction pursuant to RCW 46.63.030(3) and who ((~~wilfully~~)) fails to respond as provided in this title is guilty of a misdemeanor regardless of the disposition of the notice of infraction.

((~~(2)~~)) (3) Any person who ((~~accumulates~~)) drives a motor vehicle within the state and has accumulated two or more ((~~charges~~)) notices of failure to appear on his or her driving record maintained by the department of licensing in any ((~~four~~)) five-year period as a result of noncompliance with the traffic infraction laws in any jurisdiction or court within Washington, or in any jurisdiction or court within other states which are signatories with Washington in a nonresident violator compact or reciprocal agreement under chapter 46.23 RCW, shall be guilty of failure to comply, a gross misdemeanor. A person is not subject to this subsection for failure to pay a fine for any pedestrian, bicycling, or parking offense.

((~~The arresting officer may determine probable cause for arrest under this subsection by verification of the person's driving record obtained from the department of licensing.~~)) Probable cause for arrest under this subsection is established by the officer obtaining, orally or in writing, information from the department of licensing that two or more notices of failure to appear are on the person's driving record.

Venue for prosecution shall be in the court with jurisdiction in the area of apprehension.

Sec. 2. Section 46.52.120, chapter 12, Laws of 1961 as last amended by section 1, chapter 99, Laws of 1984 and RCW 46.52.120 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) The director shall keep a case record on every motor vehicle driver licensed under the laws of this state, together with information on each driver, showing all the convictions and findings of traffic infractions certified by the courts, together with an index cross-reference record of each accident reported relating to such individual with a brief statement of the cause of the accident. The chief of the Washington state patrol shall furnish the index cross-reference record to the director, with reference to each driver involved in the reported accidents.

(2) The case record shall be maintained in two parts.

(a) One part shall be the employment driving record of the person. This part shall include all motor vehicle accidents in which the person is involved while the person is driving a commercial motor vehicle as an employee of another or an owner-operator, all convictions of the person for violation of the motor vehicle laws while the person is driving a commercial motor vehicle as an employee of another or an owner-operator, and all findings that the person has committed a traffic infraction while the person is driving a commercial motor vehicle as an employee of another or an owner-operator. The same reports shall be entered when the person is a law enforcement officer or fire fighter as defined in RCW 41.26.030, or a state patrol officer, and is driving an official police, state patrol, or fire department vehicle in the course of their official duties.

(b) The other part shall include all other accidents, convictions, and findings that the person has committed a traffic infraction.

(3) Such records shall be for the confidential use of the director and the chief of the Washington state patrol and for such police officers or other cognizant public officials as may be designated by law. Such case records shall not be offered as evidence in any court except in case appeal is taken from the order of the director, suspending, revoking, canceling, or refusing a vehicle driver's license or to provide proof of a person's failures to appear under RCW 46.64.020.

(4) The director shall tabulate and analyze vehicle driver's case records and suspend, revoke, cancel, or refuse a vehicle driver's license to a person when it is deemed from facts contained in the case record of such person that it is for the best interest of public safety that such person be denied the privilege of operating a motor vehicle. Whenever the director orders the vehicle driver's license of any such person suspended, revoked, or canceled, or refuses the issuance of a vehicle driver's license, such suspension, revocation, cancellation, or refusal is final and effective unless appeal from the decision of the director is taken as provided by law.