A state appeals court has upheld a lower-court ruling overturning the city's assault-by-vehicle law—a 2005 law that made it a crime (a gross misdemeanor, with the possibility of a $5,000 fine and a year in jail) to knowingly assault someone with a vehicle. The law was enacted so that the city could punish people who kill while driving negligently; Ephraim Schwartz, who mowed down city council aide Tatsuo Nakata while speeding through a crosswalk and talking on his cell phone in 2006, was sentenced under the law.

Although the city argued that hitting someone with a car and killing them raises a traffic violation from an infraction to assault, the lower-court judges ruled that the law conflicts with a state law that says cities can't criminalize traffic infractions; today, the Washington State Court of Appeals, Division 1, agreed.

I have a call in to City Attorney Tom Carr to see if the city plans to pursue the case to the Washington State Supreme Court; sources at city hall suggest the city is more likely to push to change the state law than continue to pursue the case.