Tough New Laws Target Dangerous Drivers

Tough new state laws that go into effect Jan. 1 could help get dangerous drivers like Dr. Ronald Allen off the road.

Starting at midnight on New Year’s Eve, those caught driving without a license or with a suspended or revoked license will lose their car for 30 days. After the second offense, they’ll lose their car for good.

At the time of the crash that killed a Mission Viejo couple and critically injured their daughter and hurt two others, Allen did not have a valid driver’s license, authorities said. On Wednesday, Allen was convicted on two counts of second-degree murder for causing the deaths of Mark and Noreen Minzey while driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

“This is a bill that could prevent crimes like that one from taking place,” Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Sylmar), who wrote the law requiring vehicles to be confiscated, said Wednesday. “We’re going to stop such crimes because we’re going to be taking cars away from those who choose to drive without a valid license.”

In June, 1993--the month before the crash--Allen lost his license after he was arrested in Laguna Beach on suspicion of public intoxication, hit-and-run driving and resisting arrest.

Although the new law doesn’t specifically address drunk driving cases, Katz said his legislation and another bill carried by state Sen. Quentin L. Kopp (I-San Francisco), which calls for the cars of first-time offenders to be impounded for 30 days, should help keep drunk drivers off the roads.

There are an estimated 1.7 million California motorists with no licenses or with revoked or suspended licenses, Katz said. Of those, 750,000 lost their driving privileges because of drunk driving.

DMV estimates that about three-fourths of those who have had their licenses suspended because of drunk driving will continue to drive. And those people are four times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash, Katz said.

“Some say what we’re doing is tough,” Katz said at a news conference in Los Angeles. “But the situation calls for drastic measures. . . . (These drivers) are a threat to every man, woman and child, and they need to be stopped.”

Although supporting the new laws, Orange County Assistant Dist. Atty. Robert Molko is skeptical whether they will stop motorists like Allen.

“I don’t know if that’s the end-all solution,” said Molko, who prosecuted Allen. “Because as I know Dr. Allen, he would have driven whether he had a license or not.”

The Minzeys were on their way home when their car was struck head-on by Allen’s vehicle on Santiago Canyon Road. The crash left their daughter Karie Minzey, now 12, critically injured. Two family friends who were in the car also were injured.

The American Civil Liberties Union has no plans to challenge the new laws, but will be “intently watching how the law is put into effect,” said Allan Parachini, public affairs director of the ACLU of Southern California.

“While the (Katz) bill was somewhat tempered during the last six months, it’s still not a bill we can support,” Parachini said. “There has been a great deal of talking tough and passing laws that appear to do something but really don’t.”

But Reidel Post, executive director of Orange County’s Mothers Against Drunk Driving, believes the effort will keep unlawful motorists off the roads because “their weapons will be taken away.”

“I think it’s been a long time coming,” she said. “Our society needs this because people who have had their licenses suspended lost their driving privileges for a reason.”