DUI bills aim to close loopholes

Republican leaders have cleared the way for legislation to address problems with reporting, tracking and treating drunken drivers on the state's roads and highways.

House Speaker Marty Stephens, R-Farr West, said legislative leaders next week will announce a package of DUI bills to close loopholes and solve some of the state's quandaries in handling drunken drivers.

"We want drunk drivers off the road," Stephens said. "It's a very high priority."

More Utahns are dying in alcohol-related accidents than ever before. In 2000, alcohol-related fatalities in Utah traffic accidents climbed 4 percent, according to the National Highway Transportation Safety Association. Of the state's 373 traffic fatalities, 89 involved alcohol.

Nationally, the percentage increase from alcohol-related highway deaths wasn't as large. Of the 41,717 U.S. traffic deaths in 2000, 16,653, or 40 percent, were in alcohol-related accidents, a 2 percent increase from the previous year, the association said.

Thursday, legislative leaders met to decide which of the eight DUI bills on this session's docket will be fast-tracked by GOP lawmakers.

One DUI bill that is not included in the Republican-sponsored package is SB30, which requests the most substantive funding for improvements to DUI problems.

The bill, sponsored by Sen. Mike Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, amends a statute that distributes money collected though the state's beer tax. SB30 would ensure a specific portion of the money to cities and counties will be used exclusively for programs and projects related to the prevention, treatment, detection, prosecution and control of offenses in which alcohol is a contributing factor.

Waddoups, who has steadfastly stated the need for more money to help with DUI even in lean financial times, will run his bill outside the DUI package.

One advocate of a crackdown on DUI problems said the package announced Thursday certainly could elicit some good results, but lawmakers must be willing to spend some money, too.

"Give us some funding so we can treat these people. Give us some money so we can follow them through the system," said Mary Phillips, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "We don't have good record keeping because we don't have the funding."

But it's unclear where lawmakers will direct their meager dollars in this lean financial year.