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Montana is taking a stronger stance on impaired driving.

The Montana highway patrol reports about 50-percent of those suspected of DUI refuse to have their blood-alcohol level tested.

A new law that goes into effect today aims to stop that practice by allowing an officer to call a judge on the spot to get a warrant for a blood test.

Captain Keith Edgel of the Montana Highway Patrol said, “People are going to learn that refusals are not going to be an avenue or a loophole they can use to avoid prosecution.”

While new statistics show the number of drunk drivers on Montana roads in 2010 took a dip from previous years, Montana has consistently topped the nation in alcohol-related fatalities.

For DUI Task Force Member, Jeannie Martin, Montana’s DUI problem hits close to home.

A drunk driver slammed into her daughter’s car nearly 30 years ago, taking her life and leaving her children without a mother.

“You never get over it. You learn to live with it. There are drunk driving incidents. I refuse to call them accidents because the drinking was not an accident. What happened afterwards was an incident that may or may not have cost someone their life,” Martin said.
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Montana’s new DUI law goes into effect July 1, but officials in Missoula say they’re already cracking down.

They are making more traffic stops and paying close attention to all drivers. They hope their efforts along with the new law will help slow drunk driving not only in Missoula, but across the state.

Part of the new law allows authorities to obtain a warrant, day or night, if a suspected impaired driver refuses the blood alcohol test.

Missoula County Sheriff Carl Ibsen says it will make convicting impaired drivers easier,

“If we can give good articulation to the judge as to why we need it, this is any time of the day or night, the judge will provide the warrant and we can speed up that process of getting the evidence,” he said.

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In the most coincidental police booking since John Denver was accused of not paying for a Denver Omelet in Denver, the son of Joe Montana was arrested shortly before 4 a.m. Friday morning at an unknown location in Big Sky Country. He was released on $685 bail.

Montana in February transferred from Notre Dame to the University of Montana where he is vying for the starting quarterback spot.

Montana due in Missoula Justice Court at 2:30 p.m. before Judge John Odlin.

This is not Nate Montana’s first encounter with the law and Demon Booze, which may place this incident in the category of ‘we have a real problem.’ Montana was arrested in July of last year for underage drinking at a house party while attending Notre Dame.

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Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock says the new DUI laws that go into effect in October will make significant changes in Montana. He added that the new rules will help change one of the biggest problems in the communities- repeat DUI offenses.

“In Montana we’ve had some of the most dangerous roads in the county and we continue to lead on all the national statistics,” Bullock explained.

Some of the major changes in DUI law will come from two bills- House Bill 106: The Montana 24/7 Sobriety Program Act and Senate Bill 15: The Aggravated DUI law.

In the 24/7 Sobriety Project, if someone is arrested for second or subsequent DUI, that person will have to take an alcohol breath test twice a day and if there’s alcohol in the offenders system, that person will go to jail.

“It’s a low cost program, that’s been demonstrated to be effective. It can really change people’s behaviors,” Bullock said. “We continue to read about the fifth, the eventh DUI and what we’re hoping with this program is to really start cracking down and make a difference.”

The Aggravated DUI increases penalties for driving with a blood alcohol level of .16 or higher. Those convicted of this offense could be fined and imprisoned for up to a year. The court can also impose the 24/7 Sobriety Program on the offender.
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There are victims of drunken driving. And, according to one Montana legislator, there are victims of drunken driving laws.

While speaking out against a proposed bill that would make DUI laws more strict for repeat offenders, state Rep. Alan Hale, R–Basin, said drunken driving regulations hurt local businesses and are “destroying a way of life.”

“These DUI laws are not doing our small businesses in our state any good at all. They are destroying them,” he said in a speech on the state House floor. “They are destroying a way of life that has been in Montana for years and years.”

Hale, who, according to his campaign website, runs a bar in Basin, says pubs are important gathering places in his rural Montana district — important gathering places that are only accessible by car.

“These taverns and bars in these smaller communities connect people together,” the first-term lawmaker said in a statement publicized by the Montana news blog The Lowdown.
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A proposal to toughen the penalties against repeat drunk drivers was endorsed by the House Monday, one of a number of measures attempting to crack down on high drunk-driving rates in Montana.

House Bill 14 carried by Democratic Rep. Mike Menahan would let courts look back to impaired driving offenses up to 10 years old when someone is being punished for a drunk-driving charge, a change from the current five-year cutoff.

The measure, which was backed by the House on an 88-12 vote, allows courts to hit more offenders with tougher second-offense penalties, such as suspending offenders’ licenses.

One of the opponents was a bar owner who argued the bill is bad for business. The Legislature has made cracking down on drunk driving a priority with a slew of bills, all of which Rep. Alan Hale of Basin argued are bad for rural areas.

“They are destroying a way of life that has been in Montana for years and years,” said the Republican in debate. “These taverns and bars in smaller communities connect people together. They are the center of the communities. I guarantee you there are only two ways to get there: either you hitchhike or you drive. And I guarantee you they are not going to hitchhike.”

But Hale appears to be in in the slim minority, as many lawmakers argue Montana’s current penalties for drunk drivers are too lenient and allow impaired drivers to tally repeat offences and stay on the road.

“It’s dead wrong that we are allowing this tragedy to go on and on,” said Republican House Majority Leader Tom McGilvray of Billings

Democratic Rep. Robert Mehlhoff from Great Falls agreed with McGilvray’s sentiment and added that he thought it was important to toughen laws on drunk drivers without extending jail sentences which Mehlhoff said aren’t as effective as alternative punishments.

“I would hope we start to look more and more at how we accomplish the end of drunk driving on our roads without long jail sentences,” Mehlhoff said.

The state’s boozy image has been bolstered over the past couple years with a number of high-profile drunken driving deaths, and prosecutions that many argue are too light. The proposal endorsed Monday in the House joins others that increase penalties for repeat offenders, daily testing for repeat offenders and a new round-the-clock system for police to get permission to take blood samples from those refusing breathalyzer tests.

Menahan, a prosecutor in Helena, is carrying a number of those drunk driving measures. On Saturday his bills to increase penalties for drunk driving and help rehabilitate offenders cleared the Senate after already clearing the House.

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A bill in Montana to mandate alcohol testing for people suspected of driving under the influence passed its first Senate test Wednesday.

House Bill 29, which previously cleared the House, gained preliminary Senate approval on a 19-10 standing vote. It comes up for a second Senate vote today.

The bill would repeal the state’s 50-year-old implied consent law. That law says that by possessing a driver’s license, the owner gives consent to testing for alcohol levels.

Refusal means suspension of the driver’s license for six months for a first offense and 18 months for a second offense.

Supporters of the bill, including prosecutors and law enforcement officers, claim drivers have learned to refuse the test to avoid drunk driving convictions. They argue license suspensions are not a deterrent to these drivers.

The bill, which is aimed at repeat offenders, was patterned after a law adopted in South Dakota.

On Wednesday, the Senate adopted an amendment to the bill from Sen. Drew Perkins, R-Casper, to require law enforcement officers to get a search warrant if a driver refuses a test.

Injecting a representative of the judicial branch into the process helps protect drivers’ rights, Perkins said.

The search warrant can be transmitted electronically, he said.

The amendment, Perkins said, puts the offense of drunk driving on a level playing field with any other crime.
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A Montana public service TV ad called “Sober Friend” has raised a critical question, particularly for the wide-open West: Can you be charged with DUI for riding a horse while intoxicated?

The issue is particularly timely after two men were arrested in Texas two weeks ago for doing just that, although the charge was later reduced to public intoxication.

Helena Police Chief Troy McGee says he got many calls about the ad, which is from the Montana Department of Transportation’s Plan2Live campaign, especially from young people. “They absorbed the message,” he tells Helena’s Independent Record. “They got it.”

And, he hastens to add, it is not illegal to ride a horse while intoxicated.

According to Montana law, the Record says, DUI cases do not apply to vehicles that are moved by “animal power” nor to bicycles or wheelchairs.

Luke Berger, deputy Helena city attorney, tells the paper, however, that just because it’s legal doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

“I wouldn’t recommend that anyone does that,” Berger says. “But as the law says, you can ride your horse after drinking.”

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Enacting new crackdowns on drunken driving is a near certainty at the 2011 Legislature — and the only question may be, how will lawmakers do it?

“This is definitely a big issue,” says Sen. Larry Jent, D-Bozeman, who’s carrying one of the major proposals. “I think the times have changed. … The overall attitude of people who elected us is demanding something be done, that works.”

Jent’s bill would create the crime of “aggravated driving under the influence (DUI),” which targets problem drinkers/drivers and tries to get them off the road.

Attorney General Steve Bullock, a Democrat, has a package of proposals, and another key bill is being sponsored by Sen. Jim Shockley of Victor, a Republican who will chair the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Shockley also is running for Bullock’s job in 2012, but says he’s seen no indication that the debate over drunken-driving will become overly politicized at the Legislature.

“His bills that I like, I’ll support,” Shockley says of Bullock. “His bills that I don’t like, I don’t support. I would expect him to do the same.”

While drunken-driving always attracts some legislative interest, a spate of high-profile DUI deaths has catapulted the issue to center stage this session, with lawmakers and others vowing to attack what they see as a persistent problem in a state they say is too tolerant of driving while drunk.

Tawny Haynes, whose husband Michael, a Highway Patrol officer, was killed by a drunken driver in 2009 while on duty near Kalispell, is among those pushing efforts to improve DUI laws.
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HELENA — Montana Attorney General Steve Bullock on Thursday proposed a statewide expansion of a pilot program that requires anyone arrested more than once for drunken driving to take a breath test twice a day.

Bullock said the expansion would be the first step in his plan to toughen the state’s drunken-driving laws. He is also proposing criminal penalties for drivers who refuse to take a blood or breath test. And he wants to create a new charge of aggravated DUI for anyone who drives with a blood-alcohol content of 0.15 percent or higher.

The legal limit for drivers is 0.08.

The Democratic attorney general’s proposals would have to pass the GOP-controlled Legislature when lawmakers convene next month.

“I’m hopeful that all three of them end up with broad bipartisan support. This problem is not a Democrat or a Republican issue,” Bullock said. “I think these three (proposals) are great parts of what can be done.”

The first component — the statewide expansion of the 24/7 Sobriety Project — has taken a first step with Republican Rep.-elect Steve Lavin of Kalispell planning to sponsor the bill.

The proposal would require repeat offenders across the state to stay sober 24 hours a day, seven days a week from the time they are arrested until the completion of their sentence. Under the program, borrowed from South Dakota, an offender who fails a breath test or does not show up for one is jailed and their bond is revoked.

Lavin, a former Montana Highway Patrol officer, called it fiscally responsible legislation that won’t cost the taxpayers any money because those who have to take the breath tests also have to pay for them.

“I just don’t see any opposition to it,” Lavin said. “I’ve talked to quite a few of my comrades, and they seem to like it.”

Lavin said he was not as familiar with the other two proposals — criminal penalties for people who refuse drunken-driving tests and increased penalties for those convicted of driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.15 percent or higher — but that they sounded like good ideas.

Bullock’s office plans to have legislation drafted for his proposal to criminalize breath-test refusals.

A legislative committee has been working during the interim on nearly a dozen proposals dealing with drunken driving to take to the 2011 Legislature. One of the Law and Justice Interim Committee’s proposals would create an aggravated DUI charge for a blood-alcohol content of 0.2 and above.

Bullock said he plans to ask the committee to amend its legislation to lower the threshold to 0.15.

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