Family members of the recently deceased have to wait longer to find out their loved one’s cause of death.
Tests that used to take weeks to perform are taking months.
The Washington State Patrol said toxicology test results are taking 91 days to complete this year.
Last year, on average, it took 51 days. In 2016, it took 20 days.
“One of the reasons is, our troopers are better trained,” said WSP Captain Monica Alexander.
She said troopers are submitting twice as many toxicology blood samples to the state’s crime lab as they did in 2009.
Alexander said toxicology results provide better proof of impairment from drugs and troopers are being trained to take blood samples if they believe a driver is impaired.
"They're detecting more things in people than just alcohol... If you’re driving all over the road, why are you doing that?” said Alexander, “When our troopers stop you we want them to be as good as this work as possible.”
Alexander said WSP will discuss going to the legislature for more funding to reduce the backlog at the crime lab.
Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock said he and other coroners and medical examiners will definitely look to lawmakers for help reducing the toxicology wait times.
“It’s just a backlog for us to close out. But in the end it’s the families who are suffering,” said Warnock.
He said about one in six of the cases his office deals with require toxicology results to determine a cause of death.
That information is needed to complete a death certificate, usually required for a family to receive insurance or other death benefits.
Warnock said the delay makes things worse for already grieving families.
“Say the breadwinner of the family has died. A single mom with two to three kids doesn’t have an income and what are they doing? The house going to foreclose? Probably. And that’s a state problem,” said Warnock.
