H-2073.1          _______________________________________________

                            SUBSTITUTE HOUSE BILL 1964

                  _______________________________________________

State of Washington              54th Legislature             1995 Regular Session

By House Committee on Transportation (originally sponsored by Representatives K. Schmidt, R. Fisher, Robertson, Cairnes, Ogden, Hankins, Elliot, Johnson, Chandler, Scott, Tokuda, Quall, Backlund, Chopp, Horn, Koster, McMahan, Mitchell, Skinner, Benton, D. Schmidt and Stevens)

Read first time 02/22/95. 

Simplifying accident report record-keeping.

     AN ACT Relating to access to accident reports; amending RCW 46.52.030; and providing an effective date.

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

     Sec. 1.  RCW 46.52.030 and 1989 c 353 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:

     (1) The driver of any vehicle involved in an accident resulting in injury to or death of any person or damage to the property of any one person to an apparent extent equal to or greater than the minimum amount established by rule adopted by the chief of the Washington state patrol in accordance with subsection (5) of this section, shall, within twenty-four hours after such accident, make a written report of such accident to the chief of police of the city or town if such accident occurred within an incorporated city or town or the county sheriff or state patrol if such accident occurred outside incorporated cities and towns.  Nothing in this subsection prohibits accident reports from being filed by drivers where damage to property is less than the minimum amount.

     (2) The original of ((such)) the report shall be immediately forwarded by the authority receiving ((such)) the report to the chief of the Washington state patrol at Olympia, Washington((, and the second copy of such report to be forwarded to)).  The Washington state patrol shall give the department of licensing ((at Olympia, Washington)) full access to the report.

     (3) Any law enforcement officer who investigates an accident for which a driver's report is required under subsection (1) of this section shall submit an investigator's report as required by RCW 46.52.070.

     (4) The chief of the Washington state patrol may require any driver of any vehicle involved in an accident, of which report must be made as provided in this section, to file supplemental reports whenever the original report in his opinion is insufficient, and may likewise require witnesses of any such accident to render reports.  For this purpose, the chief of the Washington state patrol shall prepare and, upon request, supply to any police department, coroner, sheriff, and any other suitable agency or individual, sample forms of accident reports required hereunder, which reports shall be upon a form devised by the chief of the Washington state patrol and shall call for sufficiently detailed information to disclose all material facts with reference to the accident to be reported thereon, including the location, the cause, the conditions then existing, the persons and vehicles involved, the insurance information required under RCW 46.30.030, personal injury or death, if any, the amounts of property damage claimed, the total number of vehicles involved, whether the vehicles were legally parked, legally standing, or moving, and whether such vehicles were occupied at the time of the accident.  Every required accident report shall be made on a form prescribed by the chief of the Washington state patrol and each authority charged with the duty of receiving such reports shall provide sufficient report forms in compliance with the form devised.  The report forms shall be designated so as to provide that a copy may be retained by the reporting person.

     (5) The chief of the Washington state patrol shall adopt rules establishing the accident-reporting threshold for property damage accidents.  Beginning October 1, 1987, the accident-reporting threshold for property damage accidents shall be five hundred dollars.  The accident-reporting threshold for property damage accidents shall be revised when necessary, but not more frequently than every two years.  The revisions shall only be for the purpose of recognizing economic changes as reflected by an inflationary index recommended by the office of financial management.  The revisions shall be guided by the change in the index for the time period since the last revision.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 2.  This act takes effect July 1, 1996.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3.  If specific funding for the purpose of this act, referring to this act by bill number, is not provided for in a transportation appropriations act in 1995 that either becomes law under Article III, section 12 of the state Constitution or is approved by the people of the state, this act is null and void.

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