A recent bill with connections to Vashon that proposes to change Washington’s wrongful death laws has overcome one significant hurdle on its way through the state houses, as it passed the Senate by a vote of 26 – 21 on Feb. 10.
“We’re not there yet,” said islander Jeff Chale, who has testified in support of the new legislation. The bill, known as SB 6015, must now go to both the House Judiciary and Appropriations committees, and if it makes it through both, it will go to the House floor before the end of this legislative session, which ends on March 8.
The bill is focused on two aspects of the state’s wrongful death laws: citizenship and dependency.
Under the law as it is currently written, to sue for wrongful death in Washington one must be a U.S. citizen and a dependent of the deceased — meaning the families of someone from another country or the parents of an adult child who has no dependents of their own may not sue in cases of wrongful death.
The bill’s sponsor, Senator Bob Hasegawa, D-Beacon Hill, has said that the citizenship piece stemmed from a law written in 1917 that targeted Chinese immigrant laborers, preventing their families from suing when their loved ones died because of unsafe working conditions.
At the Senate hearing, MingMing Tung-Edelman, president of the Chinese American Citizens Alliance, was reported as saying that Washingon is “one of the very few states left that have this discriminatory, xenophobic and antiquated law.”
Citing the horrific Ride the Ducks vehicle-tour bus collision on the Aurora Bridge in 2015, Hasegawa pointed out that the families of five international students who were killed in the crash were not able to file wrongful death suits due to the law — and that it has been the subsequent coming together of several communities since that incident that spurred him to work to correct that “injustice.”
Chale said that his involvement with the legislation began the day his daughter Katie was killed in a collision with a charter bus on Vashon Highway in September 2014.
“Parents just have no idea,” he said. “You’re dealing with this intolerable grief, and then you find out that there is literally nothing you can do.”
Following the collision, the driver of a Horizon Coach Line bus carrying children from an off-island school to Camp Sealth said he had felt ill the morning of the crash, but thought he would be fine to work.
That was not the case. The bus veered across the center line and the lane of oncoming traffic that morning, landing in a hedge on the opposite side of the highway near Shawnee Road. The driver reportedly had blacked out at the wheel due to his illness. Katie Chale was traveling in the oncoming lane when the bus hit her car head-on.
Jeff Chale, who will testify in support of the bill again as it moves toward the House, said that another islander, State Sen. Sharon Nelson, D-Maury Island, has been an invaluable advocate throughout the legislative process. He credited Nelson, and last fall’s special election that saw the state Senate achieve a Democrat majority, for the progress the bill has made so far.
As reported widely across several media outlets last week, the bill does have its opponents, including the Washington State Medical Association, Washington State Hospital Association and Washington Defense Trial Lawyers — all primarily concerned about the potential for increased legal claims and litigation that could result if the legislation is passed.
For his part, Chale wants the public to know that this isn’t about financial gain.
“Money is not the point,” he said. “Let’s make sure this doesn’t happen to another family. Let’s strengthen the legacy of (our) children. It’s the right thing to do, Families need to be treated equally under the law. It’s time.”
The Beachcomber will follow this story as the bill progresses through the Legislature.
