Huge hole in new DUI law

Drivers arrested for drinking and driving in Riverton won't be counted. People caught under the influence and behind the wheel in Taylorsville, Draper, American Fork and any other community with a local justice court won't either.

Details of a bill deemed one of the most important in the Legislature's DUI Initiative are being interpreted so that small justice courts — which handle 50 percent of Utah's DUI cases — apparently are not obligated to report DUI-case details that were expected to help better the overall justice system sentence, track and charge Utah's drunken drivers.

"This law doesn't require it," said Rick Schwermer, assistant court administrator, Administrative Office of the Courts. Justice courts aren't linked to the overall court system, or by computer, "so it doesn't make sense to have them tied in.

"It's not within the realm of possibility," Schwermer said.

Officials, proponents of stricter DUI laws and even the sponsor of HB18, Rep. Lamont Tyler, R-Salt Lake City, say they are surprised to learn of the court's interpretation of the new law late this week.

"I'm not sure what happened," Tyler said. "We thought we had that covered. It creates a big hole in what we were trying to do."

Web extra 2002 legislative session: 8 measures win approval in the battle against DUI Complete text of HB18 Jan. 25: Legislative leaders said fighting DUIs is top priority Deseret News editorial: Utah's DUI reporting mess

"That most certainly was not the intent of anyone," said Art Brown, vice president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and an advocate for several DUI bills at this session's Legislature.

Leadership of the 2002 Legislature called the DUI Initiative their top priority. They passed eight bills to make headway on a system that has let drunken drivers fall through the cracks when it comes to sentencing, community service and treatment. But as the dust has settled in the two weeks since the Legislature ended, there is great confusion about how the intent and application of HB18 got so far afield.

The confusion is based on the application of HB18, which was supposed to direct the court system to collect and maintain data necessary to allow sentencing enhancements decisions in DUI and reckless-driving offenses.

The most important of these will provide money to help state courts collect and store information that is absolutely essential for judges who hand down sentences. As it now stands, many jurisdictions do not accurately report DUI information. Some drunken drivers are treated as first-time offenders over and over again because they appear in different courtrooms in front of judges who have no access to information about previous convictions.