Officials Tell of New Drunk Driving Laws

Standing in front of a mangled car, Assemblyman Jack O’Connell and California Highway Patrol officials sought Monday to reinforce the perilous image of drunk driving and outline stiffer legal penalties that take effect Jan. 1.

“The message is, ‘If you choose to drink and drive, you will pay, and you will pay dearly,’ ” said O’Connell, a Carpinteria Democrat.

The Legislature has passed laws increasing the fines and jail sentences for drunk driving. Lawmakers also have given judges the authority to order a person convicted of drunk driving to visit a chronic alcoholism treatment center, or watch a coroner or an emergency medical staff at work as a condition of probation.

And beginning July 1, judges will have the authority to order that vehicles of some drunk drivers be equipped with an ignition interlock device that prevents the car from starting if it detects alcohol on the driver’s breath.

The ignition interlock can only be ordered for repeat drunk drivers convicted at least twice within seven years, O’Connell said.

CHP Lt. Terry Enright said drunk driving-related accidents and drunk driving arrests in Ventura County are down this year compared to last year. Enright and O’Connell made their remarks before the CHP office in Ventura.

From January through November, 1991, there were 402 drunk driving-related accidents compared to 342 this year. CHP officers arrested 2,745 people from January through November, 1991, compared to 2,326 arrests for the same period this year. Drunk driving-related deaths statewide also dropped this year, Enright said. He attributed the drop in arrests and accidents to increasing public awareness, stiffer penalties and law enforcement efforts.

O’Connell said, “We’re winning the war on eliminating the drunk driver from our streets . . . . Ventura County has a reputation statewide for being tough on the DUI offender.”