Steve Lacey lived an extraordinary life but died while running a most ordinary errand. The forty-three year old father of two was born and raised in England where he showed an aptitude for computers as a child. His career path led him to Microsoft, then Google, where his skills as a programmer and innovator catapulted him to the top of his profession.

Steve Lacey was on his way to Costco on Sunday afternoon, July 24, and was sitting in traffic, waiting for a light to change when his life ended. A minute before he was tragically killed, a 52-year old driver, Patrick Rexroat, was allegedly speeding southbound on I-405, carrying three and a half times the legal limit of alcohol in his bloodstream, and chasing a car that he thought had cut him off in traffic. While in hot and drunk pursuit of the other driver, Rexroat failed to negotiate the turn he attempted at high speed and slammed into the driver’s side door of Steve Lacey’s car, killing him instantly.

Witnesses report that the 52-year old Rexroat got out of his car and pounded his chest in a defiant gesture. When he was told that he had killed another person he shrugged his shoulders and started to walk away.

Drunk drivers kill an average of 250 motorists each year in our state. Sometimes they kill themselves, but often they emerge unscathed while an innocent life is taken. Given this annual carnage, you would think that the law would throw the book at DUI killers, if for no other reason than to protect ourselves and our highways.

What sort of justice awaits the victim’s family, the community and the defendant in this case? The answer is as infuriating as the crime. Under Washington State sentencing guidelines, the killer of Steve Lacey faces no more than 41 months in prison, minus one-third of the sentence that will almost certainly be reduced for good behavior. That means that vehicular homicide offenders actually are removed from our streets for less than 2 and half years. Does that make you feel safer about running your next errand?

Oregon, Idaho, and Steve Lacey’s England all have laws that keep a DUI killer behind bars for two or three times as long as Washington’s law. Last year the Legislature considered HB 1646, which would have put a DUI vehicular homicide sentence on par with a first-degree manslaughter sentence, or up to eight and a half years. Why should a drunk who kills with a two-ton automobile be treated more leniently than a person who recklessly handles a gun? A legislative hearing room was packed with families like Steve Lacey’s who begged the committee to change the law. The bill did not get out of the Judiciary Committee.

Prosecutors throughout the state have the dreadful task of explaining to grieving families like the Laceys that the drunk driver who killed their loved one will be back on the road in about two years. It is an indefensible state policy, and we must change it now, for the safety of each of us who travel on the road.

Dan Satterberg is the King County Prosecuting Attorney.