SENATE BILL REPORT

                                    HB 1024

        AS REPORTED BY COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS & INSURANCE,

                                MARCH 28, 1991

Brief Description:  Excluding certain driving record information pertaining to law enforcement officers and fire fighters from abstracts of driving records.

SPONSORS:Representatives Zellinsky, Broback, Dellwo, Haugen, Kremen, Day, Wineberry, Mielke, Orr, Inslee, Ebersole, R. Meyers, Paris, Schmidt, May, Edmondson, Van Luven, Sheldon, Pruitt, Winsley, Forner and Anderson.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS & INSURANCE

SENATE COMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS & INSURANCE

Majority Report:  Do pass.

      Signed by Senators von Reichbauer, Chairman; Johnson, Vice Chairman; McCaslin, Moore, Owen, Pelz, Rasmussen, Sellar, Vognild, and West. 

Staff:  Meg Jones (786‑7416)

Hearing Dates:March 21, 1991; March 28, 1991

BACKGROUND:

The Department of Licensing maintains abstracts of the driving record of licensed drivers.  These are available on a limited basis to the individual named, current or prospective employers, current or prospective insurance carriers and substance abuse assessment/treatment agencies requiring the information for evaluation or treatment of the named individual.  The abstract includes the number of accidents, citations, and response to citations in court.

Fire fighters and law enforcement officers may be involved in a higher proportion of on the job accidents as the result of the nature of their duties.  By law, these accidents are included on their individual abstract.  Under current law, if an accident occurred during an emergency situation and the officer or fire fighter's actions were reasonable, the information can be removed from the abstracts provided to insurance companies.  The department chief must certify that the actions were reasonable under the circumstances.

Fire fighters, law enforcement officers and highway patrol officers report that this standard is subjective, and unfairly prejudices their ability to obtain insurance.

SUMMARY:

All information pertaining to law enforcement officers or fire fighters or State Patrol officers while driving official vehicles in the performance of occupational duty shall be excluded from abstracts provided to insurance companies.

Appropriation:  none

Revenue:  none

Fiscal Note:  none requested

TESTIMONY FOR:

Driving duties of state troopers, firefighters, police and law enforcement officials make it inequitable to include their occupational driving records on an insurance abstract for personal auto insurance.

TESTIMONY AGAINST:  None

TESTIFIED:  Howard Vietzke, Washington State Council of Firefighters (pro); Dan Davis, Washington State Troopers Association (pro); Mike Patrick, Washington State Council of Police Officers (pro); Rick Jensen, Washington State Patrol (pro); Clark Holloway, Department of Licensing (pro)