Let’s hold drunk drivers more accountable | Rep. Roger Goodman

Published 4:49 pm Friday, February 3, 2012

My neighbor in Kirkland, Steve Lacey, was a father of two, a Google engineer headed to Costco on a sunny weekend afternoon when a drunk driver killed him.

I drive that way all the time. It could have been me. Or maybe you.

The drunk driver who pleaded guilty this week to killing Steve had a 0.29 blood-alcohol level, three times the legal limit. Patrick Rexroat will soon be sentenced for vehicular homicide. If it is a typical sentence, he might only serve two years, after taking “earned early release” time into account.

But Steve Lacey’s wife and kids have lost Steve forever. That doesn’t feel like justice to me. We need to be tougher on drunk drivers.

Because you’re three times more likely to get maimed or killed on our roads than at the hands of a violent criminal.

And because no child should ever have to lose a mom or dad in a senseless car wreck.

That’s why I’m continuing my aggressive fight to reduce deaths and injuries from drunk driving. I’m calling for stronger laws that make it impossible to vacate DUI felonies and that add cameras to ignition interlock devices, so offenders can’t game the system (HB 2443).

We need to pay attention to the kids. I say it’s time to increase penalties for drunk driving whenever there’s a minor in the car (HB 2302). I’ve heard horrifying 911 calls from kids driven by drunk parents – incredible!

And what about Steve Lacey’s kids? Locking up drunk driver Patrick Rexroat won’t bring Steve back. As his wife, Nabila Lacey, wrote to me, she and her kids have been sentenced to a life without Steve, with no possibility of parole.

The same is true for all children whose parents are killed by drunk drivers.

I propose requiring DUI offenders who kill to pay child support for the kids of their victims (HB 2405). That’s true accountability, and it’s fair. Why should a surviving mom or dad be forced to work two jobs – or sell the family home and move into an apartment? It wouldn’t cost taxpayers anything to require DUI killers to do the right thing.

As taxpayers we spend a lot of money arresting, prosecuting and locking up rapists, robbers and murderers. As we should. Those who threaten public safety need to be stopped.

But the fact is that year after year, the deaths and serious injuries on our roadways vastly exceed the damage inflicted by violent criminals.

I’m proud I’ve helped Washington pass strong laws that have sharply reduced DUI fatalities on our roads and highways. But hundreds of our neighbors, like Steve Lacey, are still being killed by drunk drivers every year.

As long as the carnage continues, we need to ask: Is there more we can do?

The answer is clearly “Yes!” Police, prosecutors and victims-rights groups agree that we should increase accountability for offenders and protections for victims by passing the stronger laws I’ve proposed this year.

Most importantly, we must change the culture, so friends don’t let friends drive after they’ve had “just had a few.” Ever. It’s not worth a life.

If you drink and drive and kill someone, you shouldn’t be able to serve a couple years and then move on with your life. Not while your victims pick up the pieces. Not when the cost to society and taxpayers is so high.

Let’s hold drunk drivers more accountable for a lifetime of damage caused to victims’ families. Let’s do it now.

Rep. Roger Goodman (D-Kirkland) is vice chair of the Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Committee and vice chair of the Judiciary Committee.