BILL REQ. #:  S-2188.1 

READ FIRST TIME 01/28/04.   

     AN ACT Relating to transferring accident data processing to the department of transportation; amending RCW 46.52.030, 46.52.050, 46.52.060, 46.52.065, 46.52.080, 46.52.085, and 46.29.060; reenacting and amending RCW 46.52.120; providing an effective date; and declaring an emergency.

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

Sec. 1   RCW 46.52.030 and 1997 c 248 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     (1) Unless a report is to be made by a law enforcement officer under subsection (3) of this section, 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 four days 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 or where a law enforcement officer has submitted a report.
     (2) The original of the report shall be immediately forwarded by the authority receiving the report to the ((chief of the Washington state patrol)) secretary of transportation at Olympia, Washington. However, the Washington state patrol shall retain, until an electronic copy of the report is available, a copy of any report taken by its law enforcement personnel. The ((Washington state patrol)) department of transportation shall give the department of licensing and the Washington state patrol full access to the report or any other compiled reports as the chief deems necessary.
     (3) Any law enforcement officer who investigates an accident for which a 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 the chief's opinion is insufficient, and may likewise require witnesses of any such accident to render reports. For this purpose, the secretary of transportation with the recommendations of 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 secretary of transportation with the recommendations of 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 circumstances, 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 secretary of transportation with the recommendations of 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)) seven 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.

Sec. 2   RCW 46.52.050 and 1961 c 12 s 46.52.050 are each amended to read as follows:
     Every coroner or other official performing like functions shall, on or before the tenth day of each month, report in writing to the sheriff of the county in which he or she holds office and to the chief of the Washington state patrol, the director of the traffic safety commission, and the secretary of transportation the death of any person within his or her jurisdiction during the preceding calendar month as a result of an accident involving any vehicle, together with the circumstances of such accident.

Sec. 3   RCW 46.52.060 and 1998 c 169 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     ((It shall be the duty of the chief of the Washington state patrol to)) The secretary of transportation shall file, tabulate, and analyze all accident reports and ((to)) publish annually, immediately following the close of each ((fiscal)) calendar year, and monthly during the course of the year, statistical information based thereon showing the number of accidents, the location, the frequency and circumstances thereof, and other statistical information ((which)) that may prove of assistance in determining the cause of vehicular accidents.
     Such accident reports and analysis or reports thereof shall be available to the director of licensing, the ((department of transportation)) chief of the Washington state patrol, the utilities and transportation commission, the traffic safety commission, and other public entities authorized by the ((chief of the Washington state patrol)) secretary of transportation, or their duly authorized representatives, for further tabulation and analysis for pertinent data relating to the regulation of highway traffic, highway construction, vehicle operators and all other purposes, and to publish information so derived as may be deemed of publication value. In addition, the department of transportation shall give the Washington state patrol full access to compiled reports as the chief deems necessary.

Sec. 4   RCW 46.52.065 and 1977 ex.s. c 50 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     Every coroner or other official performing like functions shall submit to the state toxicologist a blood sample taken from all drivers and all pedestrians who are killed in any traffic accident where the death occurred within four hours after the accident. Blood samples shall be taken and submitted in the manner prescribed by the state toxicologist. The state toxicologist shall analyze these blood samples to determine the concentration of alcohol and, where feasible, the presence of drugs or other toxic substances. The reports and records of the state toxicologist relating to analyses made pursuant to this section shall be confidential: PROVIDED, That the results of these analyses shall be reported to the state patrol and department of transportation and made available to the prosecuting attorney or law enforcement agency having jurisdiction: PROVIDED FURTHER, That the results of these analyses may be admitted in evidence in any civil or criminal action where relevant and shall be made available to the parties to any such litigation on application to the court.

Sec. 5   RCW 46.52.080 and 1979 c 158 s 162 are each amended to read as follows:
     All required accident reports and supplemental reports and copies thereof shall be without prejudice to the individual so reporting and shall be for the confidential use of the county prosecuting attorney and chief of police or county sheriff, as the case may be, ((and)) the director of licensing, the secretary of transportation, and the chief of the Washington state patrol, and other officer or commission as authorized by law, except that any such officer shall disclose the names and addresses of persons reported as involved in an accident or as witnesses thereto, the vehicle license plate numbers and descriptions of vehicles involved, and the date, time, and location of an accident, to any person who may have a proper interest therein, including the driver or drivers involved, or the legal guardian thereof, the parent of a minor driver, any person injured therein, the owner of vehicles or property damaged thereby, or any authorized representative of such an interested party, or the attorney or insurer thereof. No such accident report or copy thereof shall be used as evidence in any trial, civil or criminal, arising out of an accident, except that any officer above named for receiving accident reports shall furnish, upon demand of any person who has, or who claims to have, made such a report, or, upon demand of any court, a certificate showing that a specified accident report has or has not been made to the ((chief of the Washington state patrol)) secretary of transportation solely to prove a compliance or a failure to comply with the requirement that such a report be made in the manner required by law: PROVIDED, That the reports may be used as evidence when necessary to prosecute charges filed in connection with a violation of RCW 46.52.088.

Sec. 6   RCW 46.52.085 and 1979 c 34 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     Any information authorized for release under RCW 46.52.080 and 46.52.083 may be furnished in written form for a fee sufficient to meet, but not exceed, the costs incurred. All fees received by the ((Washington state patrol)) department of transportation for such copies shall be deposited in the motor vehicle fund.

Sec. 7   RCW 46.52.120 and 1998 c 218 s 1 and 1998 c 165 s 10 are each reenacted and 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 and whether or not the accident resulted in any fatality. The ((chief of the Washington state patrol)) secretary of transportation shall furnish the index cross-reference record to the director, with reference to each driver involved in the reported accidents.
     (2) The records shall be for the confidential use of the director, the chief of the Washington state patrol, the director of the Washington traffic safety commission, and for such police officers or other cognizant public officials as may be designated by law. Such case records shall not be admitted into evidence in any court, except where relevant to the prosecution or defense of a criminal charge, or in case appeal is taken from the order of the director, suspending, revoking, canceling, or refusing a vehicle driver's license.
     (3) 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. The director shall also suspend a person's driver's license if the person fails to attend or complete a driver improvement interview or fails to abide by conditions of probation under RCW 46.20.335. 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.

Sec. 8   RCW 46.29.060 and 1987 c 463 s 1 are each amended to read as follows:
     The provisions of this chapter, requiring deposit of security and suspensions for failure to deposit security, subject to certain exemptions, shall apply to the driver and owner of any vehicle of a type subject to registration under the motor vehicle laws of this state which is in any manner involved in an accident within this state, which accident has resulted in bodily injury 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 director. The director shall adopt rules establishing the property damage threshold at which the provisions of this chapter apply with respect to the deposit of security and suspensions for failure to deposit security. ((Beginning October 1, 1987,)) The property damage threshold shall be ((five)) seven hundred dollars. The thresholds 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 and by the threshold established by the chief of the Washington state patrol for the filing of accident reports as provided in RCW 46.52.030.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 9   This act is necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health, or safety, or support of the state government and its existing public institutions, and takes effect July 1, 2003.