Think back. It's October
1, 1999. A new law just went into effect that was called the Repeat
Offender Law. That law made some significant changes to the OUIL laws
of Michigan. Of course, after it passed, there were some sighs of relief
and a general consensus that the OUIL laws were set for the foreseeable
future.
Now travel to today's date.
It's time for a change. The OUIL laws are going through another rewrite
that will go into effect September 30, 2003. To refresh your memory,
in October of 2000, the federal government required that all states
go to a .08 UBAC law or face the consequences of losing federal highway
funding. While Michigan has always had .08 as a less serious offense,
it did not comply with the federal requirements. This month, Michigan
has passed a bill that complies with those requirements. It is Public
Act 61 of 2003. However, this law does more than comply with the federal
requirements.
Why Change?
Over and above the loss of funds from the federal government, it has
been shown that .08 laws save lives. A review of nine studies that have
examined .08 laws and their impact found that in the 16 states that
passed .08 before January 1, 1998, there was a median decrease in fatal
alcohol-related crashes of 7%. Three of those studies estimated that
if all 50 states had .08 as their primary enforcement level 400 to 600
lives would be saved. That's 400 to 600 people not killed needlessly.
So .08 saves lives. It's just good public policy.
OWI
So what does the law look like? OUIL and Impaired driving are still
in the statute. However, Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) is added
to the statute and uses OUIL as part of its definition. It is defined
as either being under the influence of an alcoholic liquor (OUAL?) or
having a BAC of .08 or greater. Impaired Driving uses the same definition
of visibly impaired, without any BAC to define it.
Controlled Substances
Assume that you have someone that has marijuana in their system and
that person is driving a car. The law now says that someone that has
ANY AMOUNT of a Schedule One controlled substance or cocaine in their
body has violated the law. We will not have to prove that they are under
the influence or impaired. However, if it is a controlled substance
that is not under Schedule One or cocaine, proof of being under the
influence is still necessary.
Presumptions
The BAC presumptions that are currently present in the statute have
been stricken, but in their place is relation back language. In other
words, when the breath test is given or blood is drawn, the results
of the tests are presumed to be the same as at the time the person was
driving.
Also in the law, the implied
consent penalties have been increased. Anyone that refuses the first
time, is given a one year suspension. For a second refusal in 7 years,
it is a two year suspension.
Sentencing Guidelines
Another important change deals with the sentencing guidelines. How many
times have we seen cases where someone is killed by an intoxicated driver,
and the guidelines indicate that jail, not prison, is the proper sentence.
It was as if that persons' death was not as big of a deal as someone
was killed by a gun in a bar room fight. In a tie-barred bill, (House
Bill 4248) variable 3 of the Sentencing Guidelines has increased the
points assigned when a person is killed by a driver who was intoxicated,
from 35 points to 50 points, thus making it more likely that a person
will go to prison for killing another human being.
Sunset Provision
One other current addition to the law is a sunset provision that the
.08 law would end on September 30, 2013. So in ten years, we would go
back to the current OUIL law. Of course if the federal requirements
are the same as now, we would then be in violation of those guidelines,
and we would lose a significant amount of highway funding.
Confused?
That's okay. There are a lot of changes coming with this bill in the
area of prosecuting intoxicated drivers. For more information, check
the PAAM Traffic Safety Training web site at www.paamtrafficsafety.com.
If you want to see the bills, go to www.michiganlegislature.org
and type in 4247 which is the house bill for the new OUIL law. House
bill 4248 deals with the sentencing guidelines.
The bottom line is that we
will have some new tools to help us in the prosecution of intoxicated
drivers. Let's make sure that we take advantage of them.
