OLYMPIA, Wash. – Washington is going full speed ahead in stopping habitual speeders, as the governor signed a bill into law Monday to require speed limiting devices for drivers with a history of excessive speeding.
“What’s behind this bill is, of course, a really simple goal, which is to save lives,” said Governor Bob Ferguson before he signed House Bill 1596 into law.
Under the bill, a person would have an “intelligent speed assistance” device installed in their car after getting their license suspended for reckless driving or excessive speeding, or if they have been ordered to have a device by a court.
The device uses GPS technology to limit the car’s acceleration so it cannot go above the posted speed limit in the area it is currently in.
Prime sponsor Rep. Mari Leavitt, D-University Place, said she did not understand how the device worked until she tested it out for herself.
“If I’m in a 25 (mile per hour) residential area, and I want to go past 35 or 34 or 30, depending on how it’s set, I literally can’t do it. I can push my foot on the pedal as hard as I want to and I just can’t,” she said.
“It truly is technology that will save lives because it stops speeders in their tracks,” she added.
Leavitt said the law is necessary to curb a troubling increase in fatal accidents. According to state data, fatal crashes have been on an upward trend since 2019 with a growing number of them involving speeding.
“We’re trying to save our neighbors from losing a loved one, or a parent from losing a child or a child from losing a parent,” Leavitt said.
The bill, called “The BEAM Act,” was driven in part by a crash in King County last March that killed 38-year-old Andrea Smith Hudson, 12-year-old Boyd “Buster” Brown, 12-year-old Eloise Wilcoxson and 13-year-old Matilda Wilcoxson. The crash also sent Hudson’s two children to the hospital with severe injuries.
Chase Jones, 18-years-old at the time, was accused of causing the crash by driving well over 100-miles-an-hour in a 40-mile-per-hour zone. Court documents also showed he had a history of speeding, with the 2024 accident marking the third vehicle he had totaled in a crash involving speed.
Jones pleaded guilty to four counts of vehicular homicide and two counts of vehicular assault, and was sentenced to over 17-years in prison last month.
“In our situation, four lives could’ve been saved with this technology,” said Hudson’s father, Ted Smith.
Smith said he thought the bill was a “no brainer,” but would take years to make it into law. The families forever changed by the 2024 crash were relieved to see positive change come from tragedy.
“It’s a horrific situation, there’s no words. The lives lost is incalculable,” Smith said. “I don’t know how you move forward, except just put one step in front of the other and try to make our streets safer any way that we can.”
Leavitt credited the bill’s success to the countless loved ones affected by speeding-related fatal crashes.
“It’s the family members who got us to this day,” she said. “They’re the ones who were willing to share their story over and over and over again.”
The BEAM Act goes into effect in January 2029.
Albert James is a television reporter covering state government as part of the Murrow News Fellowship program – a collaborative effort between news outlets statewide and Washington State University.
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