An examination of Washington State's vehicle impoundment law for motorcycle endorsements.

In July 2007, Washington State modified its vehicle code to expressly allow law enforcement officers to impound motorcycles of motorcyclists operating without a proper motorcycle endorsement on their licenses. The objective for this study was to examine the effects of this law regarding implementation issues, rider and law enforcement awareness of the law, the degree to which the law is being enforced, whether endorsements and/or rider safety training increased, and the effect of the law on crashes. The impoundment law has not caused any unforeseen problems for State and local law enforcement agencies charged with enforcing the law. Results indicate that most law enforcement officers and many riders are aware of the law. It appears that relatively few motorcycles are being impounded, and the number of citations issued for unendorsed riding has not changed. Findings related to endorsements, training, and crashes are somewhat inconclusive. Although some results suggest the law may have had a positive effect on endorsement and training rates, other results do not. No significant influence of the law on crash rates was found. Results from time-series analyses of endorsement, training, and crashes may have been affected by economic or other confounding factors.