Bills target very drunk drivers in Michigan

Blood-alcohol of 0.2 would carry tough penalties

Former Eaton County Sheriff Rick Jones has seen his share of drivers well over the legal limit. Some are so drunk they can hardly walk or talk, much less drive. Now as a state representative, Jones wants stiffer penalties for the drunkest of the drunken drivers.

"These are the most dangerous people out on our roads, and they should be treated as such," said Jones, R-Grand Ledge. "There is absolutely no excuse for them to be driving that drunk."

Under two House bills, anyone caught driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.20 or above would be charged with aggravated drunken driving. Penalties would mirror those for today's second-offense drunken driving, including up to 180 days in jail, up to a $1,000 fine and a suspended license for one year with a restricted license possible after 90 days. Today's state law prohibits driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 or higher, but treats everyone the same, no matter the level of intoxication. Jones hopes the House Judiciary Committee will take up his proposals in the next few weeks. The bills so far face no opposition.

Jones pointed to the March 18 traffic death of John Allen Hawkins, a 46-year-old father of two from Okemos. Alexander Hamil, 19, of Marshall, is accused of stealing a Michigan State University utility truck, driving with the headlights off in the wrong lane of Grand River Avenue and smashing head-on into Hawkins' SUV. Police said Hamil's blood-alcohol content was at least 0.20. Hamil has been charged with murder and faces life in prison if convicted. Officials from the Michigan Beer and Wine Wholesalers and Michigan Restaurant Associations said they're still reviewing details of the bills but support the concept of a graduated system.

"If you want to really go after the problem, you have to go after the really hard-core drunk drivers," said Andy Deloney, restaurant association spokesman. "For whatever reason, they just don't care about themselves or anybody else."

It takes a lot of alcohol to get to a 0.20 level. A man weighing 180 pounds would have to drink nine beers, shots or glasses of wine in an hour. A 140-pound woman would have to down six drinks. "This isn't the couple that goes out to dinner and has a couple glasses of wine," Deloney said. "These are problem drinkers."

A study by the nonprofit Century Council, a Washington, D.C.-based organization dedicated to fighting drunken driving and underage drinking, found that 58 percent of alcohol-related traffic fatalities in 2003 involved drivers with a blood-alcohol content of 0.15 or more. Michigan State Police couldn't provide data showing the number of drunken-driving arrests above 0.20. But toxicology reports show that of 12,528 blood tests taken of drunken drivers arrested in 2001, 3,604 had levels of 0.20 or above. Jones, who spent the first 12 of his 33 years in law enforcement on road patrol, said every fifth or sixth drunken driver he arrested was at or above 0.20.

"They could hardly stay on the road they were so drunk," said Jones, who was elected to the state House in November.

Several states have similar systems that use graduated penalties based on blood-alcohol levels. Thresholds vary between 0.15 and 0.20. Several highway safety organizations, including Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the National Transportation Safety Board, recommend that the threshold be set at 0.15. Stephanie Keeler, chairwoman of the MADD Michigan chapter, said her group has yet to take a position on Jones' bills.

source:http://www.lansingstatejournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050411/NEWS04/504110342/1150