House approves bill requiring breath device for drunken drivers

Convicted drunken drivers would have to pass a breath test before starting their vehicles under a bill the Kentucky House passed 95-0 on Thursday.

House Bill 58, which now proceeds to the Senate, would require judges to order a breath-alcohol monitoring devices for defendants' vehicles for six months after a first conviction for driving under the influence. The drivers blow into the devices, and if they have been drinking alcohol, an ignition lock prevents their vehicles' engines from starting.

Additional DUI convictions within five years would require longer use of the device, up to 30 months.

Under current law, judges may order repeat-offense drunken drivers to install the devices if they are granted a "hardship license" that allows them to stay on the road rather than have their driving privileges suspended. But the devices are not currently mandatory.

"I believe House Bill 58 will give Kentucky one more tool to use in the battle against drunken driving," the sponsor, Rep. Dennis Keene, D-Wilder, said on the House floor. "We have the potential today to prevent 70 deaths a year in the commonwealth with the passage of this bill."

Keene said drunken driving is an important issue to him because his daughter, then a high school senior, was involved in a head-on crash with a drunken driver in 2002 and was seriously hurt.

In 2008, Keene said, 11,773 people in the United States were killed in crashes due to alcohol. One-third of DUI-related incidents involve repeat offenders, who could be kept off the road with ignition interlock devices, he said.

Under the bill, a driver whose breath alcohol concentration exceeded 0.02 would be unable to start a car. Kentucky considers drivers legally drunk at 0.08.

Kentucky would be the 13th state to require this sort of device, Keene said. Other states that have passed such laws have started to see a drop in DUI-related fatalities, he said.

A similar measure passed the Kentucky House last year but died in the Senate. Now that the new bill is headed to the Senate, opponents say they are ready to voice their concerns.

The American Beverage Institute in Washington says it represents more than 95 Kentucky restaurants, and it worries that ignition interlock devices will usher in "a new Prohibition" where diners will be unable to enjoy a glass of wine at dinner or a beer at a ball game.

"We oppose this kind of bill everywhere it is attempted," said ABI spokeswoman Sarah Kapenstein. "If it moves into the Senate, it's possible we'll come down and testify."

Hours before the House vote, volunteers from Mothers Against Drunk Driving rallied in the Capitol rotunda to support the bill.

MADD National President Laura Dean-Mooney told the crowd that it should not sympathize with first-time DUI offenders who complain about the burden of ignition interlock devices.

Drunken drivers would have to pay $2 to $3 a day for the equipment.

"Anyone who violates the public trust and drives drunk 30 years after everyone in America has learned what a designated driver is, they have earned the right to an ignition interlock device," Dean-Mooney said.

Many first-time DUI offenders actually drove while drunk habitually before they finally were caught and convicted, she added.

The crowd also heard from Kelly Keene Jones, daughter of Keene, the bill's sponsor.

Jones talked about her long recovery after a drunken driver hit her. Her injuries required painful surgeries and years of physical rehabilitation, and she attended her high school graduation in a wheelchair, she said.

"It is by the grace of God that I stand here today," Jones said. "I ask that others be given a chance."