AB 151

This bill makes numerous changes regarding the operation of a motor vehicle

while intoxicated or under the influence of a controlled substance (OWI), including

the following:

1. Currently, an occupational license is issued for limited purposes to persons

who do not have a regular license to operate a motor vehicle because that license is

suspended or revoked. Under current law, if an occupational license applicant's

suspension or revocation is because of an OWI offense and the OWI offense is the

person's second OWI offense, the occupational license restricts the person to

operating a vehicle equipped with an ignition interlock device. This bill requires the

occupational license to restrict the person to operating a vehicle equipped with an

ignition interlock device after the first OWI offense.

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: