Washington Traffic Safety Commission.
The Washington Traffic Safety Commission (Commission) was established in 1967, following passage of the Federal Highway Safety Act of 1966, to oversee efforts to improve safety on Washington's public highways. The Commission is comprised of:
The Commission is the federally recognized highway safety office of Washington. In directing its work, the Commission uses Target Zero–Washington State's Strategic Highway Safety Plan. The Commission also collects fatal and serious injury crash data, engages in research studies, and oversees highway safety pilot projects.
Cooper Jones Active Transportation Safety Council.
The Cooper Jones Active Transportation Safety Council (Council), convened by the Commission, must be composed of stakeholders with a unique interest or expertise in the safety of pedestrians, bicyclists, and other nonmotorists. The Council's purpose is to review and analyze data and programs related to fatalities and serious injuries involving pedestrians, bicyclists, and other nonmotorists to identify areas of improvement for the transportation system, as well as patterns in pedestrian, bicyclist, and other nonmotorist fatalities and serious injuries.
The Council may make recommendations on how to improve traffic fatality and serious injury data quality, including for crashes that occur on privately owned property, such as parking lots, and may consult with local cities and counties, local police departments, other law enforcement agencies, and associations representing local cities and counties on methods for improving data quality for crashes that occur on private property.
The Council may include, but is not limited to:
The Commission may invite other representatives of stakeholder groups to participate in the Council and may also invite a victim or family member of a victim to participate.
The Council is required to meet at least quarterly and issue an annual report detailing its findings and recommendations to the Governor and the Transportation Committees of the Legislature by December 31 of each year.
Information Disclosure and Liability.
In reviewing fatalities and serious injuries in the state, the Council is permitted to review any available information, including accident information maintained in existing databases; statutes, rules, policies, and ordinances governing pedestrians, bicyclists, and traffic related to these incidents; and any other relevant information. It is authorized to review law enforcement incident documentation, supplemental reports, probable cause statements, 911 dispatcher reports, and any other relevant and necessary information only to the extent otherwise permitted by law or court rule.
Documents prepared by and for the Council are inadmissible and are prohibited from being used in civil or administrative proceedings, unless they are submitted independently of this use. The Council is not permitted to publicly disclose any confidential information obtained, such as personally identifiable information or medical records. Those who attend the Council's meetings or who participate in the development, retention, collection, or maintenance of information or documents are not permitted to testify in any civil action regarding the content of the meetings or the documents or information prepared. Recommendations by the Council and the Commission are authorized to be disclosed if they do not include personal identifiers.
When acting in good faith, without malice, and within the scope and authority granted under law, staff of the Commission and members of the Council are immune from civil liability for an activity related to reviews of particular fatalities and serious injuries.
Health Care Information Disclosure.
A health care provider must disclose health care information, except for information and records related to sexually transmitted diseases, about a patient without the patient's authorization if the disclosure is:
This healthcare information is exempt from public inspection and copying.
The Commission is categorized as a public health authority and tasked with promoting and protecting public health and safety. The Commission is tasked with:
The Commission is authorized as a public health authority to collect health care information. This information is exempt from public inspection and copying. The Commission may compile and link data, store information in a secure database, and perform statistical and epidemiological analyses to identify causes and trends in traffic fatalities.
The Commission may convene a fatality review committee, which may:
Meetings of the fatality review committee are confidential and not subject to the Open Public Meetings Act. Discussions among participants of a fatality review committee during fatal crash review proceedings, and documents, prepared by the Commission, other than the final report of the committee, are inadmissible and may not be used in a civil or administrative proceeding, unless independent grounds for such review exist.
"Fatality review committee" means a group of subject matter experts and other members recruited and assembled by the Commission based on their traffic safety experience to review incidents involving the death of a person resulting from a collision involving a motor vehicle, whether on a roadway, at an intersection, along a sidewalk, or on a path contiguous with a roadway.
As otherwise permitted by law or court rule and when relevant and necessary, the Commission may review law enforcement incident documentation, supplemental reports, probable cause statements, 911 dispatcher reports, abstracts of driving records, and any other information relevant to a review.
The following information and documents related to traffic fatality reviews obtained by the Commission are confidential and exempt from public inspection and copying:
Recommendations from the Commission and the Council may be disclosed without personal identifying information.
If acting in good faith, without malice, and within the parameters of and protocols of state law, representatives of the Commission and members of a fatality review committee are immune from civil liability for activities related to reviews of fatalities and serious injuries.
As compared to the original bill, the substitute bill modifies a function of the Commission as the identification of "contributing" factors that most commonly lead to motor vehicle collisions that result in death or serious injury, rather than the identification of "risk" factors that most commonly lead to these types of collisions.
The substitute bill narrows the restrictions preventing the content of:
The substitute bill also makes technical corrections.
(In support) Hundreds of people die every year on roadways. Traffic fatalities are a public health issue. Expanding the Commission's access to health data will strengthen the state's ability to address the safety issues identified.
The Commission already conducts fatal crash reviews for collisions with pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities. Recommendations of the Council have been formulated based on observations made from fatal crash reviews. This bill expands the scope of what can be reviewed to all fatal collisions and ensures the protection and privacy of the process. The objective of these reviews is to understand why collisions occurred and to make recommendations to prevent them from occurring in the future.
The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has already been deemed a public health entity, and this bill would grant the Commission a similar status. Fatal crash reviews can facilitate a better understanding of the circumstances that lead to fatal death and crashes. Medical information will only be obtained for the small percentage of cases where that information is needed to understand the cause of a collision.
(Opposed) None.
(Other) The language in the bill related to the inadmissibility of certain information in civil litigation needs to be amended. As drafted, it creates burdens for victims in highway fatality cases. It is better for trial courts to determine what evidence should be admissible.
(In support) Representative Sam Low, prime sponsor; Shelly Baldwin, Washington Traffic Safety Commission; Mark McKechnie, Washington Traffic Safety Commission; and David Jones, wtsc cooper jones atsc.