Tiered system would toughen punishment as blood-alcohol levels increase
By RICK BRUNDRETT
If you’re a suspected drunken driver and refuse to take a breath test, your driver’s license would be suspended for a year under a proposal that dramatically would change the state’s DUI laws.
The current administrative suspension period is 90 days. Twenty-four other states, including North Carolina and Georgia, set it at one year, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Only eight other states have it at 90 days.
The proposed bill, unanimously approved Monday by a subcommittee of the S.C. Impaired Driving Prevention Council, would replace existing DUI laws with a tiered system of punishments that would toughen penalties as blood-alcohol levels increase.
“I know the defense bar is going to oppose this ... but I think we’ve put together a bill that can make a difference,” said Jeff Moore, chairman of the council subcommittee drafting the legislation
The council, created in 2004 by the S.C. Department of Public Safety, is composed of representatives from various state agencies and nonprofit organizations involved with highway safety.
The full council is expected to take up the proposed 27-page bill Thursday. If passed, it could be introduced in the Legislature by early next month, said Moore, executive director of the S.C. Sheriff’s Association.
House Judiciary Committee chairman Jim Harrison, R-Richland, has agreed to be the bill’s lead sponsor, Moore said. Efforts Monday to reach Harrison were unsuccessful.
DUI defense lawyer Ronnie Cole of Anderson, who — along with several other prominent defense attorneys — was invited by the council to participate in drafting the legislation, expressed frustration Monday about the process.
“There is nothing they have given us,” he said. “I would like to see a bill passed that is fair to everybody. This bill is not fair to everybody.”
Gov. Mark Sanford, in his annual State of the State address last week to the Legislature, called on tougher DUI laws. Spokesman Joel Sawyer said Monday the governor wouldn’t comment on the council’s proposal until he had a chance to review it, though he added, “We’re very interested in their work in strengthening DUI laws.”
Sawyer said, “We think the most important thing is having a law that is enforceable — a law that doesn’t have loopholes that lawyers can exploit.”.
Council chairman William Bilton, executive director of the S.C. Commission on Prosecution Coordination, said Monday he believes there is a “desire in the General Assembly to do something this year on DUI.”
Critics say the weak laws have contributed to the state’s high drunken-driving fatality rates. In 2005, the state had the nation’s seventh-highest death rate in alcohol-related crashes.
In South Carolina, it is illegal to drive with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or more. Under the proposed bill, penalties would range from 48 hours in jail for a first offense of driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent but less than 0.10 percent to seven years in prison for fourth and subsequent offenses of driving with a level of at least 0.16 percent.
Current penalties range from 48 hours in jail to five years in prison, regardless of the blood-alcohol level.
The proposed bill also would:
n Change state law from “driving” to “operating” under the influence, which defense lawyers say would mean a person sitting in a parked but running car could be charged
• Eliminate the requirement for police to give warnings against self-incrimination before giving field-sobriety and breath tests
Administrative license suspensions are separate from license suspensions resulting from convictions. Drivers who receive administrative license suspensions can obtain temporary licenses pending appeals but must complete an alcohol-treatment program, if their suspension is upheld, to get their licenses back.
Currently, drivers who take breath tests and register blood-alcohol levels of 0.15 percent or more automatically have their licenses suspended for 30 days.
Under the proposed bill, drivers with blood-alcohol levels of at least 0.10 percent automatically would have their licenses suspended for two months. At levels of 0.20 percent or more, the suspension period would be six months.
Sara Lee Drawdy, a 13th Circuit assistant solicitor in Greenville, said at Monday’s subcommittee meeting that a one-year license suspension for refusing to take a breath test probably would persuade more drivers to take the tests. That would help improve convictions rates, especially for longtime drinkers who don’t appear drunk on police videos, she said.
Col. Russell Roark, head of the state Highway Patrol, said it would be easier on his troopers if administrative and criminal DUI hearings were combined into one proceeding. But he added that the proposed one-year administrative license suspension period was “not a show-stopper” for him.
