[atlas:bill]

AN ACT Relating to enforcement, collection, and use of tolls on the Tacoma Narrows bridge; amending RCW 46.61.690, 46.63.030, and 46.63.140; reenacting and amending RCW 46.12.370; adding a new section to chapter 46.63 RCW; and creating a new section.

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

Sec. 1. RCW 46.12.370 and 1997 c 432 s 6 and 1997 c 33 s 1 are each reenacted and amended to read as follows:

In addition to any other authority which it may have, the department of licensing may furnish lists of registered and legal owners of motor vehicles only for the purposes specified in this section to:

(1) The manufacturers of motor vehicles, or their authorized agents, to be used to enable those manufacturers to carry out the provisions of the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 1966 (15 U.S.C. sec. 1382-1418), including amendments or additions thereto, respecting safety-related defects in motor vehicles;

(2) Any governmental agency of the United States or Canada, or political subdivisions thereof or within, to be used by it or by its authorized commercial agents or contractors only in connection with the enforcement of motor vehicle or traffic laws by, or programs related to traffic safety of, that government agency. Only such parts of the list as are required for completion of the work required of the agent or contractor shall be provided to such agent or contractor;

(3) A commercial parking company requiring the names and addresses of registered owners to notify them of outstanding parking violations. Subject to the disclosure agreement provisions of RCW 46.12.380 and the requirements of Executive Order 97-01, the department may provide only the parts of the list that are required for completion of the work required of the company;

(4) An authorized agent or contractor of the department, to be used only in connection with providing motor vehicle excise tax, licensing, title, and registration information to motor vehicle dealers; ((or))

(5) Any business regularly making loans to other persons to finance the purchase of motor vehicles, to be used to assist the person requesting the list to determine ownership of specific vehicles for the purpose of determining whether or not to provide such financing; or

(6) Any company or its agents operating a toll facility under chapter 47.46 RCW requiring the names, addresses, and vehicle information of motor vehicle registered owners to issue a notice of traffic infraction under RCW 46.61.690.

In the event a list of registered and legal owners of motor vehicles is used for any purpose other than that authorized in this section, the manufacturer, governmental agency, commercial parking company, authorized agent, contractor, financial institution, toll facility operator, or their authorized agents or contractors responsible for the unauthorized disclosure or use will be denied further access to such information by the department of licensing.

Sec. 2. RCW 46.61.690 and 1983 c 247 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) Any person who uses a toll bridge, toll tunnel, toll road, or toll ferry, and the approaches thereto, operated by the state of Washington, the department of transportation, ((~~or any~~)) a political subdivision or municipal corporation empowered to operate toll facilities, or a company operating a toll facility under chapter 47.46 RCW, at the entrance to which appropriate signs have been erected to notify both pedestrian and vehicular traffic that it is entering a toll facility or its approaches and is subject to the payment of tolls at the designated station for collecting tolls, commits a traffic infraction if:

((~~(1)~~)) (a) Such person does not pay, refuses to pay, evades, or attempts to evade the payment of such tolls, or uses or attempts to use any spurious ((or)), counterfeit, or stolen tickets, coupons, ((or)) tokens, or electronic devices for payment of any such tolls, or

((~~(2)~~)) (b) Such person turns, or attempts to turn, the vehicle around in the bridge, tunnel, loading terminal, approach, or toll plaza where signs have been erected forbidding such turns, or

((~~(3)~~)) (c) Such person refuses to move a vehicle through the toll ((~~gates~~)) facility after having come within the area where signs have been erected notifying traffic that it is entering the area where toll is collectible or where vehicles may not turn around and where vehicles are required to pass through the toll ((~~gates~~)) facility for the purpose of collecting tolls.

(2) A law enforcement officer may issue a notice of traffic infraction, or a notice of traffic infraction may be mailed to the registered owner or person renting a vehicle for violation of this section.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 3. A new section is added to chapter 46.63 RCW to read as follows:

(1) The use of electronic tolling systems is subject to the following regulations:

(a) Electronic tolling systems may take pictures of the vehicle and vehicle license plate only.

(b) A notice of infraction must be mailed to the registered owner of the vehicle.

(c) A person receiving a notice of an infraction based on evidence detected by an electronic tolling system may respond to the notice by mail.

(2) Infractions detected through the use of electronic tolling systems are not part of the registered owner's driving record under RCW 46.52.101 and 46.52.120.

(3) If a notice of traffic infraction is sent to the registered owner under RCW 46.63.030(2) and the registered owner is a rental car business, the infraction will be dismissed against the business if it mails to the issuing agency, within fourteen days of receiving the notice, the name and known mailing address of the individual driving or renting the vehicle when the infraction occurred. If the business is unable to determine who was driving or renting the vehicle at the time the infraction occurred, the business must sign an affidavit making this declaration. The affidavit must be mailed to the issuing agency within fourteen days of receiving the notice of traffic infraction. Timely mailing of this affidavit to the issuing agency relieves a rental car business of any liability under this chapter for the notice of infraction. An affidavit form suitable for this purpose must be included with each infraction issued, along with instructions for its completion and use.

Sec. 4. RCW 46.63.030 and 1995 c 219 s 5 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) A law enforcement officer has the authority to issue a notice of traffic infraction:

(a) When the infraction is committed in the officer's presence;

(b) When the officer is acting upon the request of a law enforcement officer in whose presence the traffic infraction was committed; ((or))

(c) If an officer investigating at the scene of a motor vehicle accident has reasonable cause to believe that the driver of a motor vehicle involved in the accident has committed a traffic infraction; or

(d) When the infraction is mailed to the registered owner or the person renting a vehicle as authorized under subsection (2) of this section.

(2) When an electronic tolling system is used in compliance with section 3 of this act, a law enforcement officer, whether present or not during the commission of the infraction, or other issuing agency may issue a notice of traffic infraction by mail to the registered owner of the vehicle, or to the person renting the vehicle. The registered owner of the vehicle or the person renting the vehicle is responsible for the infraction.

(3) The owner of a vehicle is responsible for a violation unless within fifteen days after notification of the violation, furnishes the officials or agents of the municipality that issued the citation with:

(a) An affidavit made under oath, stating that the vehicle involved was, at the time, stolen or in the care, custody, or control of some person other than the registered owner; or

(b) Testimony in open court under oath that the person was not the operator of the vehicle at the time of the alleged violation.

(4) A court may issue a notice of traffic infraction upon receipt of a written statement of the officer that there is reasonable cause to believe that an infraction was committed.

((~~(3)~~)) (5) If any motor vehicle without a driver is found parked, standing, or stopped in violation of this title or an equivalent administrative regulation or local law, ordinance, regulation, or resolution, the officer finding the vehicle shall take its registration number and may take any other information displayed on the vehicle which may identify its user, and shall conspicuously affix to the vehicle a notice of traffic infraction.

((~~(4)~~)) (6) In the case of failure to redeem an abandoned vehicle under RCW 46.55.120, upon receiving a complaint by a registered tow truck operator that has incurred costs in removing, storing, and disposing of an abandoned vehicle, an officer of the law enforcement agency responsible for directing the removal of the vehicle shall send a notice of infraction by certified mail to the last known address of the registered owner of the vehicle. The officer shall append to the notice of infraction, on a form prescribed by the department of licensing, a notice indicating the amount of costs incurred as a result of removing, storing, and disposing of the abandoned vehicle, less any amount realized at auction, and a statement that monetary penalties for the infraction will not be considered as having been paid until the monetary penalty payable under this chapter has been paid and the court is satisfied that the person has made restitution in the amount of the deficiency remaining after disposal of the vehicle.

Sec. 5. RCW 46.63.140 and 1980 c 128 s 11 are each amended to read as follows:

(1) In any traffic infraction case involving a violation of this title or equivalent administrative regulation or local law, ordinance, regulation, or resolution relating to the stopping, standing, or parking of a vehicle, proof that the particular vehicle described in the notice of traffic infraction was stopping, standing, or parking in violation of any such provision of this title or an equivalent administrative regulation or local law, ordinance, regulation, or resolution, together with proof that the person named in the notice of traffic infraction was at the time of the violation the registered owner of the vehicle, ((~~shall~~)) constitutes in evidence a prima facie presumption that the registered owner of the vehicle was the person who parked or placed the vehicle at the point where, and for the time during which, the violation occurred.

(2) The foregoing stated presumption ((~~shall apply~~)) applies only when the procedure prescribed in RCW 46.63.030((~~(3)~~)) (5) has been followed.

NEW SECTION. Sec. 6. The legislature respectfully request the Washington state supreme court to amend the Infraction Rules for Courts of Limited Jurisdiction to conform to this act. Furthermore, the legislature respectfully asks the court to create a notice of infraction that is consistent with this act.