Amber Weilert News Today

If the legislation passes, Washington would be just the second state in the U.S. to amend its blood alcohol content limit.

By Reneé Diaz

Dropping BAC to .05 just 1 of the measures

If you have spent any time behind the wheel since the pandemic began, you've surely noticed people driving more aggressively and way too fast. That correlates with a rise in traffic fatalities that last year reached levels not seen since the 1990s in Washington state and Oregon.

Washington lawmakers are debating possible new responses to surging traffic fatalities. And similar action is being considered by Oregon lawmakers in Salem.

The number of deaths on the state’s roads last year was the highest in more than 30 years. There is bipartisan support for legislation to increase Washington’s road safety and lower the blood alcohol limit.

Washington state lawmakers in Olympia are debating a suite of possible new responses to surging traffic fatalities. Those include authorizing photo radar in highway work zones, prohibiting right turns at many red lights, and lowering the breathalyzer limit to convict for drunk driving. Some of these ideas have corollaries in Oregon, where the legislative machinery is getting revved up too.

An initial report from the WA Traffic Safety Commission showed 745 people died in crashes in 2022, the most since 1990.

The Stranger's evening news roundup.

While Washington state saw a 16 percent increase in road deaths between 2020 and 2021, Pierce County saw a 34 percent year-to-year jump, alerting officials of the dire need for road safety reform.