Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 13, 1993 TAG: 9305130129
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The bill to let police take away the licenses of suspected drunken drivers before trial died in a dispute between legislative leaders and Gov. Douglas Wilder. The governor actually signed a version of the bill and contends it was properly passed, but it will not take effect.
"I'm sick and tired of the cat-and-mouse games," said Lillian N. DeVenny, state president of Virginians Opposing Drunk Driving. "I'm very disappointed, but I'd personally rather see no [law] than to see one like this. At least this allows us to go back to the drawing board."
Wilder told reporters Wednesday he will not call a special session of the General Assembly to reconsider the license-revocation bill.
The bill, passed in February, would allow police to immediately suspend someone's license for seven days if the driver is stopped and found to have a blood-alcohol content of 0.10 percent or above as measured by a breath test.
Wilder returned the bill to the assembly last month with 10 technical amendments, but lawmakers approved only four changes.
Last week, Wilder signed a copy of the original bill, arguing on the advice of the attorney general that the legislature legally had to accept all or none of his amendments. House Clerk Bruce Jamerson said Tuesday that the bill was dead because Wilder's only choice was to either sign the measure with the four amendments or veto it.
"In a way, I'm relieved," said DeVenny, who has worked for stiffer drunken-driving laws since her 21-year-old daughter was killed in an accident in 1979. "We felt the original bill had too many problems. It would have been salvageable if the assembly had accepted the governor's amendments."
DeVenny said that as passed by the assembly, the bill required a police officer other than the one stopping the motorist to administer the breath test. That would have been a "terrible burden" on law enforcement agencies, particularly in rural areas, she said.
Bob Gore, legislative chairman of Virginia Mothers Against Drunk Driving and co-chairman of the Virginia Coalition Against Drunk Driving, said a tough administrative revocation law could reduce alcohol-related highway deaths by up to 10 percent.
"I've always been of the position that you take a half loaf if you can't get a whole loaf," said former Attorney General Mary Sue Terry, who hoped to use her longstanding advocacy of the bill as a weapon in her campaign for governor.
Terry was careful in a brief telephone interview not to assign blame over the law's sudden demise or to criticize the legal advice given Wilder by her successor, Stephen D. Rosenthal.
But she said the measure's demise doesn't send a positive message. "These issues are too important to be held up on technicalities," Terry added.
by CNB