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>> Make it a felony to knowingly and intentionally provide alcohol to a minor who kills or injures someone because of drinking.
>> Increase the fines for most DUI convictions and on hit-and-run drivers who cause death or serious injury.
>> Make it illegal for a habitual drunken driver to drive with more than .02 percent blood-alcohol content.
>> Set a two-year minimum prison sentence for people convicted of fifth-offense DUI.
>> Increase penalties for drinking while boating and extend the law to personal watercraft.
Source: Nebraska Legislature
A night of bowling and drinking beer with friends turned into more than John bargained for when he was stopped for a DUI.
It was his second offense, and the judge ordered the Omaha man to have an ignition interlock device installed on his car. Now each time he heads out on the road, he first has to blow into the device to prove that he's not impaired.
"Every time you get in and start your car, it's a reminder you shouldn't be drinking and driving,'' said John, who spoke on condition that his last name not be used. "It definitely makes you think twice.''
Soon most drunken driving offenders in Nebraska will get a similar chance to change their way of thinking. A new state law taking effect Jan. 1 gives nearly all drunken drivers a major incentive to have interlock devices installed on their vehicles.
Although only about one in six Nebraskans arrested for drunken driving has been getting an interlock device installed, it is believed that the vast majority will now.
In a fundamental change in how Nebraska tackles the drunken driving problem, the state now will effectively forgo the 30-day license revocation that comes with most DUI arrests in favor of six months using a device that won't let a car start if the driver has been drinking.
The license revocations have been much abused. Offenders and their attorneys have maneuvered to delay or avoid them, and many offenders choose to drive anyway. That appears destined to change.
"For 90 percent of my clients, I'll tell them 'Let's get interlock right away,''' said Omaha defense attorney James Schaefer. "They can get to work and get to school and live their life. But when they're driving, they don't have alcohol in their system.''
The change is a result of a major overhaul of drunken driving laws passed this year by the Nebraska Legislature. It is being applauded by safety advocates and others whose lives have been torn by drunken driving tragedies.
Every day, on average, someone in Nebraska is either killed or seriously injured in a crash involving a driver impaired by alcohol. The death toll in such crashes averages more than 80 a year in Nebraska, 130 in Iowa and 14,000 across the nation.
"Interlocks are a lifesaving device that should be mandatory at all times,'' said Dave Lutton, who lost his daughter in a drunken driving crash in October 2010. "It's a good law.''
Jessica Bedient, Lutton's 26-year-old daughter, had been married just five weeks when a drunken driver ran a red light in Omaha and slammed into her car at 75 mph. She died four days later.
The driver who hit Bedient, Aaron Danoff, had his license suspended just days earlier under the state's Administrative License Revocation, or ALR, law, which automatically revokes the driving privileges of those arrested for DUI. But that didn't stop him from pounding beers that night and again getting behind the wheel.
The new Nebraska interlock law is based on laws in Iowa and Kansas, which The World-Herald a year ago offered as models in "Wasted,'' a series that the paper published on the shortcomings in the state's drunken driving laws. Integrating interlocks into the ALR system — rather than leaving it to courts to decide later whether drivers ultimately get them — has removed a major impediment to their use.
The new law also assures that most of those who get interlocks will drive with them much longer than before. That increases the chance that the device will actually lead to changes in behavior, advocates say.
"It's a big step forward,'' said Marty Conboy, Omaha city prosecutor. "In the end, we want people to make better decisions.''
Gov. Dave Heineman and the Nebraska Department of Motor Vehicles are preparing on Wednesday to roll out a public information campaign promoting the new law.
Improved public safety isn't the only advantage of the change. The interlock option should eliminate thousands of quasi-judicial hearings a year that the state has conducted in ALR cases, mostly delay actions filed by drivers trying to avoid automatic license revocation. The City of Omaha figures to save thousands of dollars on overtime pay for police officers to appear in nearly 2,000 such cases a year.
The ALR process, separate and distinct from court cases resulting from a DUI arrest, is intended to provide a sure, swift punishment. But in practice, the system often hasn't worked that way.
Under current law, most first-time DUI offenders automatically have their licenses revoked for 90 days. After serving at least 30 days of the suspension, such a driver could get an interlock, but only if the court case was complete and a judge ordered it. Many instead got a work permit for the final 60 days of suspension or simply drove illegally, gambling they wouldn't get caught.
"A lot would wait out the suspension and quote, 'not drive,' which we know realistically doesn't happen around here,'' said Bill Gass of Smart Start Nebraska, an interlock provider. "You've got to be able to drive.''
Schaefer and other attorneys acknowledge that there was a lot of legal "gaming'' of the ALR system trying to stop suspensions.
In practice, it all combined to create a system in which many drivers arrested were able to stay on the road legally for months, many who did get suspensions continued to drive anyway, and few drivers ever got interlocks. Of the 13,000 drunken drivers a year arrested in Nebraska, just over 2,000 have been getting interlocks.
"Interlocks work,'' said Richard Roth, a New Mexico safety consultant and researcher, "but they only work if you get them installed.''
Under the new law, the odds of that happening are much higher. A first-offense drunken driver would face a 180-day license revocation, double the term under current law. But as an incentive to get an interlock, the driver could immediately apply for one and then be allowed to drive during the entire six months.
Such drivers also wouldn't have much incentive to contest an ALR revocation. If they requested a hearing and lost, they would have to wait until the court case was completed to drive with an interlock, a process that could take up to six months.
"If you want to challenge the revocation, you'd better be darn sure you're going to win, or you really give up a lot,'' said Robb Gage, an Omaha attorney who specializes in DUI cases.
In addition, the state's criminal law will now require interlocks in nearly all DUI court sentences. Since judges at sentencing typically give offenders credit for any time already served on interlock, it provides yet another incentive to get one right away.
"It's a good time to buy stock in the interlock companies,'' Conboy joked.
Indeed, the private, for-profit companies that provide the devices are gearing up, with thousands of additional units being made available across the state.
Generally, offenders pay the cost of the interlock plus a $45 state interlock fee that helps fund the devices for indigent drivers. The devices typically cost about $50 to install and remove and about $2 a day for monitoring, bringing the total cost over six months to between $400 and $500.
Most interlocks are simple hand-held devices that are wired into the ignition of the vehicle. Before starting the car, the driver must blow into a mouthpiece, and the device then registers whether alcohol is detected. If the blood-alcohol level is .03 or higher — well below the legal limit of .08 — the car won't start.
The devices are also equipped with safeguards intended to keep offenders from circumventing them. For example, some require drivers to both hum and breathe into them, keeping offenders from using cans of compressed air.
In recent years, the state has also required the devices to frequently conduct "rolling retests.'' After the driver has been on the road for five to 15 minutes, the device asks the driver to blow again.
That is meant to remove the temptation to have someone other than the driver blow into the device before setting out. Some offenders have even been known to drive to a bar and leave their cars running while they drank inside, another ruse defeated by the rolling retests. All failures or other irregularities are recorded, and the information is available for authorities to review.
John, the recent DUI offender, was at Jones Automotive in Omaha this week getting his interlock recalibrated, a regular requirement.
He said the expense adds up, though the daily monitoring costs amount to about the price of a beer. He said there is also some shame in having his kids see him blow into it when he takes them to school each day.
"It's a little embarrassing, which goes with the territory in a DUI, and it's an inconvenience,'' he said. "I definitely don't want to deal with it again.''
Contact the writer: 402-444-1130, henry.cordes@owh.com
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