HARRISBURG House revises DUI bill in Pa.

The law sets up harsher penalties for more serious offenders.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- The state House of Representatives unanimously passed broad revisions Monday to Pennsylvania's 20-year-old drunken-driving law, embracing a lower legal blood-alcohol limit and stiffer penalties for repeat offenders and motorists with excessively high blood-alcohol levels.
The bill calls for reducing the blood-alcohol limit from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent in accordance with a mandate by Congress, which set 0.08 percent as the national standard in 2000. It would also force offenders to receive drug and alcohol treatment as a condition of their sentences.
"If you don't get your House in order, then this bill says you need to be hammered if you continue to have high blood-alcohol and repeat offenses," said Rep. Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, one of the bill's sponsors.
The measure now goes to the Senate, which earlier sent the House a bill containing only the lower blood-alcohol limit. Some senators, however, have expressed interest in a broader bill, said Erik Arneson, an aide to Senate Majority Leader David J. Brightbill, R-Lebanon.
Pennsylvania is facing an Oct. 1 deadline to lower the limit or risk losing about $11 million in federal highway funds. If the legislation is passed by the Legislature and signed into law by July 15, the state would receive $3 million in federal money as an incentive for beating the deadline.
Know your limits
A 170-pound man would reach the 0.08 limit by drinking four alcoholic drinks in an hour, while a 137-pound woman would reach the same level of intoxication after three drinks in the same period, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
So far, 39 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have adopted the lower blood alcohol limit, according to NHTSA.
The law also creates three tiers of punishment, with harsher penalties for repeat offenders and drivers with excessively high blood-alcohol levels.
For example, penalties for a first-time offender for a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent include a maximum six months' probation and a $300 fine. A third-time offender with a blood-alcohol level of .16 percent or higher would face at least a year in prison, a $2,500 minimum fine, and a two-year license suspension, among other things.
Although he ultimately voted for the bill, Rep. Daylin Leach, D-Montgomery, said he objected to a provision that would penalize drivers for driving under the influence of a controlled substance such as marijuana or cocaine. Leach suggested that the bill include more specific guidelines that would enable police to determine whether a driver is actually impaired by the drug.
"Marijuana stays in your system for up to 90 days. If the police determine you have any trace of marijuana in your system, you are going to prison," he said.
Facts
Pennsylvania police agencies made 41,284 DUI arrests last year, up 1.2 percent from 40,011 in 2001, said Trooper Linette Quinn, spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania State Police.
While lowering the blood-alcohol limit can reduce the number of fatal crashes, states can be even more effective with measures such as frequent sobriety checkpoints, said Russ Rader, spokesman for the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety.
Only 11 states use sobriety checkpoints frequently -- meaning weekly -- while 13 others, including Pennsylvania, use them once or twice a month, he said.
"The issue is that there still needs to be a realistic threat of apprehension to go along with these penalties. We estimate that for every one person arrested for drinking and driving, as many as 2,000 people nationwide aren't," Rader said.