An Examination of Washington State’s Vehicle Impoundment Law for Motorcycle Endorsements [Traffic Tech]

NHTSA · 2013 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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Summary

This report evaluates the impact of Washington State’s 2007 vehicle impoundment law, which clarified that motorcycles operated by riders lacking a specific endorsement could be impounded. The study aimed to assess implementation issues, public awareness, enforcement prevalence, and the law’s effects on endorsement rates, safety training participation, and crash statistics. Data were gathered through interviews with law enforcement and towing representatives, analysis of impoundment records, and examination of licensing and crash data, with economic factors controlled to isolate the law’s influence. Enforcement of the law was limited. While the Washington State Patrol impounded an average of 20 motorcycles monthly from July 2007 to December 2009, this rate dropped to 10 per month in 2010. Interviews indicated that low impoundment numbers resulted from the difficulty of detecting unendorsed riders, officer disinclination to impound motorcycles, and explicit agency instructions against impoundment. No unforeseen implementation problems were reported, and the impoundment process did not cause significant delays for law enforcement or towing companies. Regarding rider behavior, the law did not produce a statistically significant increase in total new endorsements or total endorsement tests when economic factors were controlled. However, there was a significant shift in how endorsements were obtained: the ratio of applicants taking safety training tests versus licensing station tests increased by 10.8%. Both safety training and licensing station test numbers rose individually, but the combined total did not significantly increase. A questionnaire in Seattle revealed that 56% of respondents were aware of the impoundment law, though interviewees suggested rural riders and those not in riding groups were less aware. Crash data showed no significant decrease in total motorcycle crashes after the law’s implementation. However, there was a significant 21.9% reduction in the proportion of crashes involving unendorsed riders. The authors note that these findings are difficult to interpret because the law coincided with a national economic downturn, which likely obscured its effects. The reduction in unendorsed rider crashes may indicate that the law discouraged unendorsed riding or prompted some riders to obtain endorsements, though the lack of a significant rise in total endorsement rates contradicts the latter explanation. Ultimately, the study concludes that while the law caused no operational issues, its measurable impact on endorsements and crashes was minimal and confounded by broader economic trends.

Key finding

After Washington's impoundment law took effect, the proportion of motorcycle crashes involving unendorsed riders fell significantly by 21.9%, though total crashes and total endorsements did not change significantly.

Methodology

mixed_methods

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• motorcyclist skill

Information type

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• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation