Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Aaron Danoff's driver's license had been suspended days before, but that didn't stop him last Oct. 9 from pounding beer and then smashing into a car driven by Jessica Bedient, killing the Omaha newlywed.
There's little in Nebraska law today to stop a drunken driver bent on returning to the road.
But under a compromise bill worked out in the Legislature, most drunken drivers would be given a major incentive almost immediately upon arrest to get an ignition interlock device installed on their cars. Interlocks keep a car from starting if the driver has alcohol on his breath.
Omaha City Prosecutor Marty Conboy said Tuesday he thinks that if the proposed change had been on the books last fall, the 26-year-old Bedient would be alive today.
“This is a huge step forward,'' Conboy said. “That case alone is enough to see how this would have worked.”
The death of Bedient and other high-profile, horrific drunken driving crashes in the Omaha area have the Legislature this year looking to crack down on drinking and driving. But until now, there had been a major split on how to best go about it.
State Sen. Mike Flood of Norfolk, the speaker of the Legislature, had backed doing away with the state's process of administratively suspending licenses of drunken drivers and instead going to a system based on ignition interlocks.
Safety advocates and Conboy had strongly opposed eliminating the two-decade-old license revocation system.
A compromise worked out among Flood, Conboy and others in recent weeks would keep the license revocation system and closely integrate interlocks within it.
The new system would become similar to Iowa's, a system The World-Herald highlighted earlier this year in its “Wasted'' series seeking drunken-driving solutions.
Currently, a first-time drunken driver in Nebraska has his license immediately confiscated by the arresting officer and is given a 30-day temporary license.
When the temporary license expires, the driver faces an automatic 90-day state license suspension. The driver can request a hearing to contest the suspension, a proceeding that is separate from the driver's criminal case in the courts.
After 30 days of not driving under the suspension, the driver currently can get an interlock device for the remaining 60 days, but only if a judge in his criminal case orders the device.
In practice, it created a system where many drivers who were suspended by the state continued to drive anyway, and few drunken drivers — as few as one-fourth — ever got interlocks installed.
Under the proposal Flood soon will offer as an alternative to his original bill, a first-offense drunken driver would face a 180-day license suspension, doubling the suspension under current law. The temporary license the police officer gives out would be good for only 15 days, half the current amount.
But as an incentive to get an interlock installed, a first-time offender would be able to immediately apply to the state to get an interlock — not having to wait for the court case to proceed — and be able to drive on the interlock during the entire 180-day state suspension.
To get the interlock, the driver would have to waive the hearing to contest the state suspension. If the driver requested the hearing and lost, the driver would have to fulfill the entire 180-day suspension without the chance to get an interlock.
Under the bill, the state would also create and administer a fund to help indigent drunken drivers pay for interlock devices.
Advocates say the bill should lead to a system where the drunken driver will have great incentive as soon as he is arrested to apply to the state for an interlock device and to get it installed.
Offenders would also be required to use the interlocks for six months, instead of the two months that's typical under current law.
“The public is protected,'' Flood said. “We've had 12 months of tragedy after tragedy. This is the right step.''
Flood said the state's defense attorneys are still examining the proposal before giving their input. It would then be offered to the Legislature's Judiciary Committee, which would consider it as an amendment to Flood's earlier bill.
Diane Riibe of Project Extra Mile, an Omaha organization fighting underage driving, said she was thankful the speaker was willing to keep the license revocation system and she likes what came out of the process.
“Overall, we're excited about it,'' she said. “It provides every opportunity to make sure a drunk driver is either on an interlock or not driving.''
Conboy, the Omaha prosecutor, said Flood's proposal makes many significant improvements to state drunken driving laws that are already among the nation's best. He said the compromise is a winner for all involved — ‘‘except drunk drivers.''
The compromise was disclosed the same day that Sarah Danoff, the 28-year-old sister-in-law of Aaron, pleaded no contest to providing her under-age brother-in-law the alcohol that led to Bedient's death.
Aaron Danoff has been sentenced to 10 to 14 years in prison for motor vehicle homicide.
The Danoff-Bedient case already produced a proposal in the Legislature stiffening penalties for procuring for minors. Now it may lead to a greatly improved system of alcohol interlocks in the state, Conboy said.
“If (Danoff) had had an interlock and not been able to drive that night,'' Conboy said, “a lot of lives would be very different today.''
World-Herald staff writer Paul Hammel contributed to this report.
Contact the writer:
444-1130, henry.cordes@owh.com
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