Senator seeks to strenghten drunk driving law

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by Dave O'Brien

Record-Courier Reporter

Hiram -- More than 33,000 Ohio drivers have five or more convictions for drunk driving.

Those habitual offenders and other drunk drivers will travel more than one billion miles on Ohio roads this year and cost Ohio as much as $4 billion per year in enforcement and other costs, according to State Sen. Timothy Grendell.

To combat habitual drunk driving, Grendell has sponsored Senate Bill 17, which passed the Senate but currently sits idle in an Ohio House of Representatives committee.

His bill calls for the increased use of anti-drunk driving technology, increases licensing penalties for repeat offenders and those who allow them to drive inebriated and gives police and prosecutors new tools to fight the problem.

The Republican legislator from Chesterland in Geauga County, spoke to about 50 people recently at the second annual Chamberlain/Hopkins Symposium on Alcohol and Culture at Hiram College.

The symposium and Senate Bill 17 were developed as a result of the deaths of Hiram students Grace Chamberlain and Andy Hopkins at the hands of a drunk driver with 11 previous convictions.

A third student, Evan DaSilva, was severely injured in the March 2006 wreck but survived. James Cline, the drunk driver, is serving 38 years in prison.

"We're here today because we are part of a silver lining of a dark cloud," Grendell said. "We have a problem in Ohio because there are folks who have died because of drunk drivers."

Grendell said the bill provides for a "hard suspension" of a habitual drunk driver's license upon their third conviction by revoking driving privileges even for work purposes.

IT ALSO calls for the increased use of secure continuous remote alcohol monitors, or SCRAM units, and interlock devices because "we don't do a very good job of monitoring the habitual drunk driver."

Drivers with three or more convictions who are stopped by police also will be compelled by Senate Bill 17 to submit to breathalyzer tests.

Grendell said some defense attorneys tell their clients to not submit to breathalyzer tests and later, in court, "attack field sobriety tests and non-breath evidence to see if they can circumvent the arrest."

The bill also would make substance abuse analysis and other treatment options mandatory for habitual drunk drivers, because federal money is available to states who exercise such options and "treatment has to be part of the long-term solution," Grendell said.

He also called on Hiram students to take a leadership role by saying "drinking in moderation is fine [but] drinking to get drunk is not."

The next eight to 10 weeks are important, Grendell said, for supporters of the bill to send notes, cards or letters to Rep. John Husted, speaker of the Ohio House, or Rep. John White, chairman of the House Criminal Justice Committee.

Supporters should ask them to move the bill along for a vote. If the bill does not pass by Dec. 31, it must be re-submitted during the next General Assembly.

"The end result is simply this: We need to do everything to get those 33,000 habitual drunk drivers off the road," said Grendell, who is coming up for re-election.

"Every one of those 33,000 people is a potential deadly weapon ... it's not about getting elected, it's about doing it right."

E-mail:

dobrien@recordpub.com

Telephone: 330-296-9657