Senate Passes Two Bills in Its Campaign to Get Tougher With Drivers Who Drink

Pressing the Legislature’s get-tougher campaign against drunk drivers, the Senate on Friday approved bills making it easier to prosecute minors for drunk driving and stiffening the penalty for motorists convicted of killing someone while driving under the influence.

The minors bill passed on a 26-3 vote and was returned to the Assembly for concurrence in Senate amendments. The second bill was returned to the lower house on a 24-0 vote.

Both bills were cleared for approval by the Senate Judiciary Committee, whose chairman, Sen. Bill Lockyer (D-Hayward), said Californians could expect more of the get-tougher legislation because current laws are not adequate.

‘Our Responsibility’

“We are failing in our responsibility to provide safe streets,” Lockyer told the Senate, adding that his committee would “continue to send tougher and tougher bills (to the full Senate) until we find the proper way to handle the problem.”

The minors bill would reduce the blood-alcohol level needed to declare a person under 18 legally drunk. Current law sets the level at 0.10%. Under the bill, by Assemblywoman Lucy Killea (D-San Diego), the level would drop to 0.05%. Adults would still be held to the higher standard.

Minors with the lower concentration of alcohol in their blood would be guilty of an infraction and would be required to participate in an alcohol education program.

Longer Prison Term

The second bill, by Assemblywoman Jean M. Duffy (D-Citrus Heights), would add two years to the current maximum eight-year prison term for someone found guilty of vehicular manslaughter committed with gross negligence.

The bill would not change the term of punishment for a driver found guilty of second-degree murder for killing another person while driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. That crime currently carries a term of 15 years to life in prison.

The Senate earlier in the week approved legislation establishing a pilot project to allow four counties, probably including Los Angeles County, to set up a program that would allow judges to require convicted drunk drivers to install “breathalizer” devices in their cars. If the devices, which drivers blow into, detect more than the legally allowable concentration on the driver’s breath, the car ignition automatically locks.

Judiciary Committee researchers said that last year 2,607 people in California died in traffic crashes involving alcohol.