Drunk driving penalties, consumption reports, and intoxicated driver deterrence

2. Currently, a person who commits an OWI offense is required to submit to an assessment of the offender's use of an intoxicant. If the assessing facility determines that the offender needs treatment, it submits a report of the assessment and driver safety plan to the offender, the county agency involved in alcohol treatment, and the Department of Transportation (DOT). The driver safety plan may require treatment for the offender's misuse of intoxicants or controlled substances and attendance at a traffic safety school. This bill requires the driver safety plan to include treatment for the offender's misuse of intoxicants or controlled substances or attendance at a traffic safety school, or both, if the offender has more than one OWI offense.

3. Under current law, if a person who commits an OWI offense, including a refusal to submit to a test to determine his or her blood alcohol concentration (BAC), has one or more previous OWI offenses, the court may order that the vehicle used during the offense be immobilized or that the offender's operating privilege be limited to driving a vehicle equipped with an ignition interlock device. This bill removes the option of immobilization of the motor vehicle. Instead, the bill allows the court, as part of the penalty for a first OWI offense in which the offender had a BAC of 0.12 or more, to restrict the offender's operating privilege to driving a vehicle equipped with an ignition interlock device. The bill also requires the court to restrict the offender's operating privilege to driving a vehicle equipped with an ignition interlock device if the person has one or more previous OWI offenses.

4. Current law requires the DOT to tabulate and analyze all accident reports and not less than annually publish statistical information about the number and circumstances of traffic accidents. This bill requires DOT to publish that information at least monthly and requires that the information include the number of accidents in which the consumption of intoxicants or controlled substances were contributing factors and the amount of intoxicants or controlled substances that were in the blood of the drivers involved in those accidents.

5. The bill changes the operating privilege restrictions and monetary and imprisonment penalties for OWI offenses as follows:

- See PDF for table Under the bill, each time DOT receives a record of conviction from a court showing that a person has been convicted of OWI, DOT must publish a notice in the official newspaper of the county where the conviction occurred or the person resides containing the person's name, age, and last-known residence address and the person's total number of OWI convictions.