Washington Traffic Law Blog : Washington Traffic Lawyer & Attorney : Jon Zimmerman Law Firm : Seattle, Bellevue, Tacoma

Whether you decide to travel from Spokane to Seattle, Yakima to Yelm, or points in between during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, you will probably notice an increased police presence.  But rather than serve you some turkey and pumpkin pie, the police will be serving motorists with speeding tickets and other traffic tickets for such offenses as negligent driving, following too close, and improper lane change. 

The days preceding and following holidays are typically among the times of year when most fatality-collisions occur.  According to AAA, 2.1 million more travelers will be on the road this year during the hoilday weekend. 

Officers will not only be responding to collisions and looking for speeding, but also for drivers and passengers not wearing seat belts and also for cars with expired tabs. 

Of course, should you receive a ticket for a moving violation, you will want to fight it so that you can save money on insurance premiums and keep your driving record clean. 

Happy Thanksgiving and safe driving this holiday weekend. 

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Sen. John Kerry's daughter will not be charged with DUI due to insufficient evidence.  Despite her public arrest after she was pulled over for an expired tabs violation, Los Angeles prosecutors have declined to go forward because, to put it bluntly, they have no case.  So at most Ms. Kerry gets a traffic ticket, a type which probably has no effect on her insurance premiums.  And Ms. Kerry will not have to make repeated trips to court to be exonerated.  

Sure, so Alexandra Kerry was driving a car with expired tabs.  So what.  One King County judge even admitted in open court to having had expired tabs.  Happens to many drivers.  But at least prosecutors in Los Angeles realized that Ms. Kerry is an upstanding citizen and that a tabs violation shouldn't lead to a DUI charge.  

It also helped that Ms. Kerry probably did not give anything of evidentiary value to the police, beyond a below the limit breath test at the police station.  The daughter or a former prosecutor, Ms. Kerry probably knew to not respond to police questioning, to invoke her right to silence, to invoke her right to a lawyer, and to not take roadside tests.  Congratulations, Ms. Kerry, your sound judgment saved the day.  

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Earlier this week Seattle Times reporter Danny Westneat wrote about his frustration and how his driving habits have changed--for the worse--since Seattle decided to put up red-light cameras.

Since drivers call me daily to talk about red-light camera traffic tickets that motorists have received in the mail (and no one has called me happy to have received such a gift), it is important to note that a red-light camera traffic ticket has no effect on insurance premiums, although if a driver is stopped by a police officer and cited for a red light violation, this latter type of violation does have consequences to insurance costs.

Seattle joins other cities like Auburn, Bellevue, Bremerton, Burien, Federal Way, Fife, Issaquah, Lacey, Lake Forest Park, Lakewood, Lynnwood, Monroe, Moses Lake, Puyallup, Renton, Seatac, Spokane, Tacoma, and Wenatchee in having some form of automated traffic camera devices.

Westneat makes many good observations (more after the jump).

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Alexandra Kerry was the subject of a traffic stop in Hollywood today.  A police officer stopped a vehicle driven by Kerry, 36, because of expired vehicle registration tabs. 

Unfortunately, a simple traffic infraction turned into a full-blown DUI stop, with a custodial arrest.  Kerry declined to take a portable breath test, instead opting to take a breath test at the station.  In California, like in the State of Washington, a person can still be charged with a DUI if their breath test is below the legal limit because the State can still convict a person of DUI without a breath test if the person is appreciably impaired.  

I hope prosecutors in California decline to move forward with criminal charges.  Ms. Kerry was pulled over for a nonmoving violation, she appeared cooperative, and her breath test was below the per se limit. Clearly her case generates a lot of press and has cost her thousands of dollars in bail money, which, although she is a person of more than modest means, is still somewhat punitive.  

But what lesson should be learned from Ms. Kerry's experience in the traffic stop context?  It's quite simple: check your license tabs.  Don't drive without valid tabs.  Driving with expired tabs is like driving with your gas cover open--both are visible distractions to police officers and likely to get you pulled over. 

Since Ms. Kerry was not pulled over for a moving violation, it appears as though she would not have had a problem with the police but for her expired tabs.  

To avoid a traffic stop and traffic ticket for an infraction of expired tabs in the State of Washington, remember to renew your tabs and post the new license tab each of your vehicles prior to tab expiration.  

And good luck Ms. Kerry, I am cheering for you.   

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A forum on decriminalizing marijuana and making the offense punishable as a civil infraction will be the subject of an upcoming forum in Edmonds, the Daily Herald reports.  

My state senator, Jeanne Kohl-Welles (D-Queen Anne), will participate in a panel discussion with travel writer Rick Steves, former U.S. Attorney John McKay, and attorney and former White House Advisor Egil "Bud" Krogh.  It appears that Rep. Mary Helen Roberts (D-Lynnwood) might sign as a House sponsor.  

The idea is simple - treat low possessory amounts of marijuana like a speeding ticket or nontraffic civil infraction, save millions of dollars in incarceration and court costs, and bring in revenue (presumably millions of dollars) for people cited for marijuana possession as a civil infraction.  

What is less clear though are these items:  why the legislation proposes a $100 fine and why juveniles would get sanctioned criminally but adults would not.  

A $100 penalty for marijuana possession would be less than an HOV or lane change infraction, so perhaps legislators need to revisit the amount assessed for this proposed infraction, and whether the traffic version of a marijuana possession infraction would be a moving violation like possessing an open container of alcohol in a vehicle (which also carries a higher fine than $100).  

Second, it hardly seems fair that juveniles would receive detention ("juvy jail") for marijuana possession but adults would be able to pay a fine with no criminal sanctions.  Penalizing juvenile offenders more harshly than adults is unfair on its face nor would it be helpful for juvenile offenders who would have criminal records for marijuana possession when that same possession would be decriminalized if the juvenile were an adult.  

Third, the topic of marijuana decriminalization should be discussed in the broader context of our alcohol laws.  While decriminalization of marijuana could be a civil infraction for 19- or 20-year-olds, individuals this same age would still be charged as adults for the crime of minor in possession of alcohol.  Legislators should consider decriminalizing certain alcohol offenses.  Without certain changes, state law becomes inconsistent and appears to favor an illegal substance over a legal one, with a ticket for the illegal substance (marijuana) and jail time for the legal substance (alcohol possessed by an underage individual).  

I commend Senator Kohl-Welles for fostering a discussion on these important items.   

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