
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, February 7, 1994                   TAG: 9402070053
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND                                LENGTH: Medium

HOUSE PANEL OKS LOWER DUI LEVEL

Cracking down on drinking and driving, and perhaps trying to one-up Gov. George Allen, a Democrat-dominated House committee on Sunday endorsed a bill to lower the blood-alcohol limit for drivers and allow authorities to yank the licenses - and sometimes the cars - of drunken drivers.

The 17-5 vote in the House Courts of Justice Committee sent the bill sponsored by House Majority Leader Richard Cranwell, D-Roanoke County, to the floor for consideration this week. The proposal essentially would:

Lower the blood-alcohol level for intoxication from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent.

Punish underage drinking by mandating a six-month license suspension and a $500 fine for anyone under 21 caught driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.02 or higher.

Require an immediate seven-day license revocation for drivers whose blood-alcohol level exceeds 0.08 percent as measured by a breath test, or who refuse to take a breath test. The driver could appeal to a judge before his DUI trial for return of the license.

Require authorities to impound a drunken driver's car for 30 days if his license had been suspended or revoked because of previous drunken-driving violations. The driver or owner of the car could appeal the impoundment to a judge.

While leaders of several statewide advocacy groups, such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving, hailed the committee's action, the bill puts House Democrats on a collision course with Allen, a Republican who opposes automatic, pre-trial license revocation.

Automatic license revocation was a longtime project of former Attorney General Mary Sue Terry, whom Allen defeated for governor last fall. It passed the 1993 Assembly, but died in a procedural dispute between then-Gov. Douglas Wilder and the Legislature.

This year, apparently in deference to Allen, Republicans left license revocation out of a six-bill drunken-driving package endorsed by their House-Senate caucus. Most GOP members of the House Courts Committee supported it Sunday, however.

After Sunday's vote, Cranwell sought to downplay possible conflicts with Allen. He said the bill would give Virginia one of the toughest drunken-driving laws in the nation and predicted it would win full House approval.

"If the governor were to veto this bill, we'd look to see if we have the votes to override it," Cranwell said.

Allen has supported lower blood-alcohol limits and crackdowns on underage drinking. During the gubernatorial campaign, he called for lowering the blood-alcohol limit from 0.10 percent to 0.07.

Aside from the license revocation, the committee debate Sunday focused on the impoundment provision, which opponents said might cause undue suffering and hardship on a drunken driver's family.

"We've gone too far here," argued Del. Kenneth Melvin, D-Portsmouth. "This punishes families, unlike a lot of folks in this room, who only have one car. To take a car away for 30 days punishes a wife, kids, who might depend on that one car to get to work."

Lillian DeVenny of Virginia Beach, state president of Virginians Opposing Drunk Driving, said the measure will have a "general deterrent effect, not only on the youthful and social drinker, but on the harder habitual drinker."

"My experience with repeat and habitual offenders shows that, short of taking the car away, nothing will stop them," DeVenny said. "I'm rather tired of hearing about the drunk driver's poor family. I'm thinking about the victims who are deprived of their loved ones."

Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1994

by CNB