Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 17, 1992 TAG: 9202170235
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
JERKING THE JERKS' LICENSES
THE PROMISE of swift and certain punishment is, beyond question, one of the most effective steps the state can take to reduce the carnage caused by drunken drivers.The General Assembly - including many lawyer-legislators who make a living defending drunken drivers - at last seems to recognize the compelling public interest in making good on that promise. By sizable margins in both chambers, the House and Senate have passed booze-it-and-lose-it bills that ensure immediate loss of driving licenses for motorists arrested for driving while intoxicated.
Because there are major differences in the two bills, they likely will end up in a House-Senate conference committee. That provides another opportunity for opponents, including the influential Virginia Trial Lawyers Association, to scuttle the effort. That would be an outrage.
The main argument against "administrative license revocation" is that it violates due-process rights and the presumption of innocence until proved guilty. But under both House and Senate proposals, arrested drivers would have the right to an administrative hearing to review their cases so the due-process principle would not be violated.
Moreover, there is no constitutional right to drive on public roadways. It is a privilege that comes with numerous stipulations - including that licensees be sober when driving.
Too many individuals now ignore drunken-driving laws because, even if arrested, they can keep driving. Not only are licenses merely restricted rather than revoked for most first-time offenders, but many repeat offenders are allowed to continue driving. In 1990, 700 individuals convicted in Virginia of second or third drunken-driving offenses did not have to give up driving privileges.
In the 30 states (including the District of Columbia) with administrative license-revocation laws, there's been an annual decline of from 9 percent to 12 percent in highway fatalities. If all 50 states immediately jerked the licenses of drunken drivers, national studies indicate, an additional 2,000 lives would be spared.
Administrative revocation, being pushed by Attorney General Mary Sue Terry, has the support of the National Transportation Safety Board, the Fraternal Order of Police, the Virginia State Police, Virginia's Division of Motor Vehicles, Virginia's Alcohol Beverage Control Board and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Last year, 535 people died in this state from alcohol-related accidents. These bills come too late to help them. But it isn't too late to help the dozens, judging from the experience in other states, whose lives would be saved in the first year of enactment. So far, the House and Senate have done well in passing their respective versions of administrative revocation. They should see the job through to the end.