Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 9, 1994 TAG: 9401090020
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
The anti-drunken-driving lobby became arguably the most successful grass-roots legislative effort in modern Virginia history in the mid-1980s, raising the legal drinking age and winning a series of tougher drunken-driving standards. But though it lost its most visible spokesperson in November with the defeat of Democratic gubernatorial nominee Mary Sue Terry, the movement seems to be gaining new champions in both parties.
Gov.-elect George Allen, for example, has signaled his willingness to sign into law bills that would lower the legal limits for intoxication and curb underage drinking and driving. Pronouncements of support also have come from both Republican and Democratic legislators.
"We're more encouraged than ever that something will pass this year," said Lillian N. DeVenny, state president of Virginians Opposing Drunk Driving. "The people have finally said, `Enough.'
"And since there have been terrible [alcohol-related] crashes in the Roanoke area, those in the western part of the state are just as fed up with drinking and driving as those of us in Tidewater and Northern Virginia," DeVenny said. "This is a nonpartisan issue."
Already, Republican and Democratic lawmakers have endorsed measures that would:
Lower the blood-alcohol limit for intoxication from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent.
Attack underage drinking by requiring a six-month driver's license suspension for anyone under age 21 who drinks and drives with a blood-alcohol level of 0.02 percent or higher.
Beyond that, however, Republican and Democratic packages diverge, primarily in their attempts to deal with habitual offenders.
An omnibus alcohol safety act, spawned late last year by a House Courts of Justice subcommittee, proposes an on-the-spot, 10-day license revocation of anyone who is pulled over by police and found with a blood-alcohol level over the legal limit. The person could appeal to a district court judge to get his or her license returned.
The proposal passed the General Assembly in 1993, only to die in a procedural dispute between Gov. Douglas Wilder and the legislature.
The omnibus bill, which also includes a provision requiring a person's car to be impounded if the person is caught drinking and driving after his or her license has been revoked because of past drunken driving offenses, will be sponsored by House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County.
But Allen has signaled his opposition to the instant license revocation, which was missing from a six-bill drunken-driving package Republican legislators unveiled last month.
Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach, said many Republicans will support revocation as long as provisions allow the same police officer making the arrest to administer a breath test to the driver.
"I think some form . . . will pass the General Assembly. Many would rather see a weak version pass than none at all," Stolle said.
Allen's spokesman, Ken Stroupe, did not return phone calls for comment.
Allen campaigned in support of a 0.07 percent blood-alcohol limit and a mandatory minimum sentence of two days in jail or two weeks of community service for a first drunken-driving offense. He also called during the campaign for juvenile offenders to spend at least two weeks in a military-style boot camp, and for a greater number of sobriety checkpoints to be set up during holidays.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994
by CNB