In the New Year, State Gets Tougher on DUI Violators

The new year has ushered in more get-tough measures against drunk driving across California.

As of Jan. 1, new laws have closed several loopholes that had allowed some drunk drivers to avoid punishment.

Separately, police agencies throughout the state, armed with nearly $5 million in recent state grants, plan to set up hundreds more sobriety checkpoints in 2005 than they did last year.

Deterring drunk driving and catching violators has become a higher priority for state officials because of the increasing number of people who have died in DUI-related accidents in the last five years.

In 2003, the most recent year for which annual statistics are available, 1,445 people died in alcohol-related crashes in California, according to the state Office of Traffic Safety. That was an increase of 24% over 1999, when drunk driving was a factor in 1,170 deaths.

“We’re hoping ... to turn that trend around,” said Robert Oakes, spokesman for state Sen. Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch), chairman of the Senate Transportation Committee. “We want to tighten the law more and more to prevent anyone from slipping through the cracks,” Oakes said.

Torlakson wrote three drunk driving bills that were signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Under SB 1694, drunk driving convictions will remain on criminal records for 10 years. Previously, convictions were erased after seven years.

The extension is significant because it provides a longer timeframe for a drunk driver with a previous conviction to be considered a repeat offender and face much stiffer penalties than a first-time offender, analysts say. Under the old law, 25% of those arrested for DUI offenses were repeat offenders.

SB 1696 requires that before driving privileges are restored to a convicted drunk driver, proof must be submitted to the state by a course instructor that the violator has completed a DUI-treatment program.

Previously, students in DUI-treatment programs were permitted to submit certificates of course completion to the Department of Motor Vehicles, but that gave rise to fraud and abuse.

SB 1697 consolidates records of driver’s license restrictions and sanctions with the DMV. Before, the paperwork was scattered between the state agency and the court system.

In a separate action, the Office of Traffic Safety recently awarded grants totaling $4.7 million to 156 police departments for officer overtime to allow more DUI checkpoints across the state.

Grant recipients include law enforcement agencies in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, Riverside and San Bernardino counties.

The grants, which began in mid-December, in time for the holidays, provide for 890 checkpoints through January 2006. The previous round of state grants, totaling $3.1 million, funded 580 checkpoints by 128 police departments.

“Obviously, we’ve upped the ante on this,” said Mike Marando, spokesman for the Office of Traffic Safety. “Sobriety checkpoints work.”

Law enforcement and transportation officials said their efforts to curb drunk driving paid off, with 63 fewer deaths over the holidays than the year before.

In the final two weeks of 2004, police conducted more sobriety checkpoints. CHP officers were deployed at maximum levels, targeting drunk driving, speeding and seat belt use. Investigators from the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control cracked down on stores and bars selling alcohol to minors. And the California Department of Transportation broadcast drunk driving warnings on digital highway signs.

Between Dec. 16 and Jan. 2, 184 people died on the state’s roads and highways, according to the CHP, down from 247 the year before. The average number of fatalities over the past decade for those same two weeks was 199.