Our roads are deadly: we must act

Our state has long worked to reduce – and ultimately – eliminate fatal car accidents. That should be getting easier, given improvements of safety features on cars over the last few decades. 

Instead, we're losing ground. 

Crime makes the news – bank robberies, car thefts and murders always get a lot of attention.  

But far more Washingtonians die each year on our roads than because of homicides.  

In 2022, Washington state had 394 homicides. That same year, 745 people died in traffic wrecks.  

Over 800 people died on Washington roads in 2023. 

That's unacceptable – and each of those deaths hurt families across our state.  

The Fatal Four  

There's still a great debate about what causes crime. On traffic deaths, there's no debate.  

Our state's Traffic Safety Commission recently testified to the Transportation Committee and I heard every word.  

Wrecks aren't increasing because of bad weather or mechanical failure.  

Here are the fatal four risk factors from 2013 to 2022:  

Impaired driver (49 percent of fatalities).

Speeding driver (32 percent).

Distracted driver (23 percent).

Unrestrained occupant (21 percent).

I doubt this comes as a surprise. We've all seen these behaviors on our roads daily and the four factors have one thing in common: poor decisions by a human being.  

What should we do?

There are two big proposals this session to address the deadliest of the fatal four – and I want your feedback on each. 

The first proposal gets tougher on impaired driving, which led to 389 fatalities on our roads in 2022. Sen. John Lovick introduced legislation dropping the blood-alcohol limit from .08 to .05, which Utah and other nations have done. In those places, the change cut fatal crashes caused by alcohol by 11 percent.  

Proponents of the bill also note that the change did not harm restaurants and the hospitality industry. 

This proposal is controversial, but I understand Sen. Lovick's passion for this issue. As a state trooper for more than 30 years, he responded to an endless string of deadly wrecks and held people as they died.  

The second proposal is boosting the use of traffic cameras to battle reckless driving on highways and speeding through work zones.  

Between 2019 and 2022, our state witnessed a 66 percent jump in fatalities involving a speeding driver, with 252 deaths in 2022 alone. 

Police and state troopers can't be everywhere.   

It's especially tough to pull people over in work zones, where a four-lane highway might get restricted to one or two lanes. Troopers also note an increase in drivers racing 30 or more miles above the speed limit on highways. 

Cameras are a possible tool that fits this job. They can cover places state troopers and police officers can't.  

It's important for me to hear what you think about both ideas – that's critical as I work to represent our community and find common ground. 

This is a problem that we should unite behind solving and I'd appreciate hearing your ideas on how to prevent these tragedies. Because the lives of your friends, neighbors and loved ones are precious and worth the effort. 

Please email me at [email protected] with the subject line "Traffic Safety Feedback".