(The Center Square) – The Washington State Senate passed a bill on Wednesday lowering blood alcohol limits for impaired driving that critics warn may increase legal exposure for servers and bartenders.
The chamber passed Senate Bill 5067 by a 26-23 vote, with six Democrats voting against the proposal and two Republicans siding with the majority. If approved this session, it would lower the state’s blood alcohol concentration, or BAC, threshold for drunk driving from .08% to .05%, just like Utah did in 2017.
The proposal claims that a reduced BAC limit won’t affect vendor liability, but opponents argued during public hearings last year that a .05% threshold could drive up legal exposure for bars and restaurants.
Servers can be held liable when a drunk driver crashes after leaving their business. If someone with a .05% BAC crashed, the server could face liability, even if the person didn’t seem impaired when they left.
Sen. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, proposed it last winter, citing decades of law enforcement experience, but his colleagues didn’t hold a floor vote until Wednesday. The Senate passed the bill without hearing any additional public testimony on the proposal this session, having retained its status from last year.
“I hope Washington state will join the state of Utah and most other countries around the world,” Lovick said ahead of their vote. “Senate Bill 5067 does not change the civil liability for hospitality businesses.”
State law prohibits the sale of alcohol to anyone visibly intoxicated, placing civil liability on servers and bartenders. That liability isn’t based on a blood or breath sample, as Lovick noted on the Senate floor.
However, stakeholders testified last year that people with a .05% BAC level don’t always show signs of impairment. They argued that lowering the limit will “put servers in an impossible situation,” and that, as a result, “the liability for servers will increase,” according to a report on last year’s public testimony.
“We’re at the point of diminishing returns,” Sen. Jeff Holy, R-Cheney, said Wednesday prior to voting.
“We’re addressing people that are not impaired. Regrettably, I think this bill is not going to move the needle significantly,” Holy added, “because we are not addressing the real areas of enforcement.”
The Senate bill report from last session also cited testimony that SB 5067 “does not change the civil liability of a server.” Supporters argued during the hearing that “impairment starts at the first drink.”
The House will likely hold public hearings, as the Senate did last January, before advancing SB 5067 to the floor for final passage. The Department of Health sent a state health officer to testify in support of it last year, explaining that the risk of crashing more than doubles by the time you reach a .07% BAC.
“Science tells us that the driving performance of virtually all drivers is impaired above a blood alcohol concentration of .05%,” Dr. Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett testified. “The typical person has already started to experience the loss of small muscle control, including eye focus, impaired judgment and … alertness.”
According to state data, 51% of traffic fatalities over the last decade have involved an impaired driver.
Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen argued on the Senate floor that SB 5067 is about addressing a culture that argues about how many drinks are too much before getting behind the wheel.
Sen. Jesse Salomon, D-Shoreline, offered criticism but voted in support after citing a conversation with Pedersen.
“We do have a serious deficiency in our toxicology lab where cases currently charged, blood draws take around a year, at times, to come back,” Salomon said Wednesday. “That’s another component to saving lives when it comes to the DUI context that we could do right now, that we have failed to do.”
He called on his peers and Gov. Bob Ferguson to address the issue, bluntly stating, “I don’t love this bill.”
Sen. Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro Woolley, called his vote in opposition a way of sticking up for small towns in his district, where bars and restaurants keep the community alive. He thinks SB 5067 is a “business killer,” not a lifesaver, noting that it would make driving illegal for a lot of people after only two drinks.
“I would love to save lives, and if I believe this would do it, I’d be voting yes,” Wagoner explained to his colleagues, “but I think what this will really do is destroy businesses that are already struggling.”
House Democrats will likely schedule a public hearing on the proposal over the coming days or weeks.
