S.C. Senate Approves Tougher Penalties for Drunken Driving

The fines and prison time that repeat drunken drivers face would hinge on how much alcohol they have in their bodies under a measure that received key approval Wednesday in the South Carolina Senate.

Senators also decided to increase the punishment for first offenders with at least 0.16 percent alcohol in their blood – double the legal limit of 0.08 percent.

The legislation still faces several hurdles. The House passed its own version last year, and leaders said Wednesday they would not accept the Senate’s proposal because penalties for some first offenders should be stronger. They said they would force the bill to a conference committee for debate.

Gov. Mark Sanford also said the penalties are still too weak.

“The bottom line is that if we’re going to keep the people of this state safe on our roads, we have to get tougher on all DUI offenders, not just the repeat offenders,” he said in a statement.

Senators spent the most time arguing whether to remove an additional roadside warning.

Under current law, suspects must be read their rights multiple times _ before a field sobriety test, during the arrest and before a breath test. The mandate has been widely criticized as an example of the technicalities that make it too easy for a good lawyer to get drunken driving cases thrown out in South Carolina.

While the version passed by a Senate committee removed the first Miranda reading, it added a new roadside warning requiring officers to tell drivers they are not under arrest and can refuse to take the sobriety tests.

Some senators argued it’s only fair to tell suspects they can refuse. But critics successfully argued that drunken drivers don’t need any more protection than suspects in other cases.

“When you say, ‘You’ve got the right to refuse,’ all you’re doing is inviting him not to take it. You’re discouraging a person from cooperating,” Sen. Larry Martin said. “Rather than invite an uncooperative person on the roadside, let’s let law enforcement do their jobs.”

The Pickens Republican noted the whole process is on videotape, so people can judge for themselves whether the officer acted fairly.

The legislation does not change current law that requires DUI suspects be videotaped from the time the officer flips on his blue lights. The tape must also include the reading of rights, the arrest, a 20-minute waiting period before the breath test and the test itself.

Some senators were concerned officers in small towns – speed traps, they called them – would arrest a driver for refusing to obey an officer’s orders if he refused to take the field sobriety test. An amendment specifies they can’t do that.

“We don’t need to be trampling on people’s basic fundamental rights,” said Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell, a co-sponsor of the amendment.

Topics Personal Auto South Carolina Politics