SPOKANE -- A 19-year-old woman who's 8 months pregnant was rushed to the hospital Wednesday night after a drunk driver, running from police, hit her and her fiancee head-on. She, her baby and her fiancee are OK but the question now is: How did a guy with 8 prior DUIs end up behind the wheel?

Late Wednesday evening a Washington State Patrol Trooper on State Highway 292 approached a man who had been driving erratically and tailgating other drivers.

“He says 'Why don't you step out of the car? We need to talk.' At that point he decided he didn't want to talk, put it in gear and headed down the road at a high rate of speed,” Chan St. Claire with the Washington State Patrol said.

Driving at about 100 miles an hour Michael Forsyth lost control of his truck and slammed into an oncoming car carrying 24-year-old Justin Icard and his 19-year-old pregnant fiancee Brittany Knudsen on Highway 292 near Springdale.

Icard and Knudsen are supposed to get married Saturday; Wednesday they spent the night in the hospital.

“We'd never like to see anybody hurt, but to see a woman that's 8 months pregnant ready to have a baby, its very disheartening,” St. Claire said.

Troopers say that Forsyth was charged with a DUI for the crash, his ninth since 1989 and his second this month alone. In the last 10 years Forsyth has been charged with three different hit and runs, has been arrested 8 times for driving without a license and once more for reckless driving.

So why is he behind the wheel and not in jail? It turns out that all but one of Forsyth's DUI arrests were gross misdemeanors, punishable but a license suspension and only a short stay in jail. Once he gets out of jail, license suspended or not, there is little that can be done to prevent him from climbing behind the wheel drunk again.

“We'd never like to see anybody hurt, but to see a woman that's 8 months pregnant ready to have a baby, its very disheartening,” St. Claire said.

The thing that might get him into bigger trouble this time around is that he hurt someone while driving under the influence, which means he's being charged with vehicular assault. If convicted he could be facing five years to life in prison.