California’s ‘Extreme’ Drunk-Driving Law Needs to be Beefed Up

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By Jenny Oropeza
California State Senator

Early one Tuesday morning last January, Quirino Mateo Antonio, 31, was barreling down Sepulveda Boulevard at 95 mph in his Toyota pickup. At about 3:30 a.m., as Antonio’s truck crossed Wilmington Avenue, his vehicle slammed into a Cadillac — killing Juan Gabriel Ontiveros, a 32-year-old father of four.

Tests showed Antonio’s blood-alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit.

When is one drink too many? That is what many should worry about after an evening of fun with friends or family before deciding if it’s safe to get behind the wheel of a 4,000-pound battering ram.

Extreme drunken drivers, because of either addiction or apathy, don’t care about the law or about the safety of fellow motorists. While drinking alcohol impairs one’s judgment, intoxication is neither an excuse for stupidity — nor a license for murder.

Current California law says a driver found to have a .08 percent blood-alcohol content or greater faces charges of driving under the influence that for first-time offenders could result in at least a six-month suspension of their driver’s license, up to three year’s probation and fines, court costs and related fees of up to nearly $10,000. This BAC can occur after as little as two or three drinks, depending on sex and body size.

But a driver found to have a BAC of .20 or higher faces charges of ‘extreme’ drunken driving, and may face even harsher punishment – including mandatory installation in their cars of cell phone-sized devices that prohibit the car from starting if .03 percent alcohol is detected.

It takes most men and women five or more drinks to qualify as ‘extreme’ drunken drivers. Between 2001 and 2003, nearly 2,200 Californians were killed in crashes involving extreme levels of alcohol of .20 or higher.

Experts say such extreme drivers are at least 20 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than a sober driver. California’s current threshold to be declared an extreme drunken driver is as lenient as only four other states that define extreme drunk driving as .20, according to the National Council of State Legislatures.