Drinking bills head to Helena
A strong movement by advocacy groups,
law enforcement officials and concerned citizens is putting
pressure on state legislators to toughen Montana’s drunk-driving
laws when they meet in January.
Montana typically ranks among the worst
states each year for DUI statistics, and Whitefish, as a resort
town, has its share. According to the Whitefish Pilot’s police log,
local police see more than 100 DUI arrests a year, including DUIs
per se and felony DUIs. They also see from 50 to 100 minors in
possession of alcohol arrests — depending on the number of large
teen parties that get busted each year.
One way to bring those numbers down is
to change how alcohol is sold. To that end, the interim Law and
Justice Committee on Sept. 10 unanimously approved forwarding a
bill to the legislature that calls for mandatory training for
people who serve alcohol at bars and restaurants.
While everyone who spoke at the
committee hearing supported the new bill draft, some expressed
disappointment that plans to have the Department of Revenue oversee
and approve training had been removed from the draft. The proposed
bill stops short of providing state money to pay for educational
programs and allows the private sector to manage the programs.
Other changes to the final version
include changing the re-certification requirement for alcohol
servers from yearly to once every five years, and removing a
training-certification fee that would have gone to the Revenue
Department. A server who doesn’t complete the training within 60
days of hire or re-certify within five years could face a $50
fine.
Sen. Carol Juneau, D-Browning, who
sponsored the original draft, supported approval of the bill
despite the changes, saying it would “set good policy for the state
and be a good prevention tool.”
Mark Staples, speaking for the Montana
Tavern Association, said his group supports mandatory server
training. He noted that the bill might have had difficulty getting
through the legislature if the state was expected to pay for the
training. Initial costs were about $250,000, and annual costs were
about $200,000, he said.
“We do not oppose mandatory server
training,” Staples said. “We just want it effective, efficient and
to help with the problem with DUIs, other than just adding another
thing that doesn’t work.”
Bigfork case
Allie Bovington, representing the
Montana Highway Patrol, also supported the server-training bill.
She noted at the hearing that the driver of a vehicle that killed
trooper Michael Haynes in a head-on crash on U.S. 93 south of
Kalispell on March 23, 2009, had been drinking at Pick’s Bowling
Center, in Bigfork, and “had been served excessive amounts of
alcohol in a pretty short period of time.”
Bovington pointed out that both the bar
owner and the server were held criminally liable for their conduct
— one of the first such cases in Montana history.
Prosecutors alleged that Nathan Hale,
31, of Woods Bay, served 10 drinks in 3 1/2 hours to Travis
Vandersloot, 29, of Columbia Falls, and that Hale was drinking
during his shift. Vandersloot died on impact, and Haynes, 28, died
several days later. Justice of the Peace David Ortley sentenced
Hale, who pleaded no contest, to four months in jail — four times
the sentence recommended in his plea bargain.
The owner of Pick’s Bowling Center,
Diane Pickavance, 40, pleaded no contest on June 4 to allowing Hale
to serve alcohol to fellow-employee Vandersloot after closing time.
Ortley sentenced Pickavance to six months in jail, with all but 10
days suspended, a $500 fine and 100 hours of community service.
Haynes was the third Highway Patrol
trooper to die in vehicle crashes in Flathead County over a
two-year period. His widow, Tawny Haynes, of Kalispell, spoke at
Pickavance’s hearing and has continued to speak out about Montana’s
DUI laws.
“It’s impossible to know the results of
the decisions that you make, but, looking back now, I hope that you
can see those effects on me and my two little kids that will now
grow up without their daddy,” she told Pickavance during the
hearing.
Noting in an op-ed last year that
Montana ranks second in the U.S. for youth binge-drinking, after
holding the No. 1 spot for many years, Haynes calls for
implementation of Responsible Alcohol Sales and Service (RASS)
training for anyone in Montana who serves beer, wine or liquor.
“Montana needs to step up and build a
stronger link between aggressive prevention and enforcement,” she
said. “By supporting prevention on the front end, it’s possible to
reduce the future costs of cracking down on underage drinking and
impaired driving.
Other measures
Another advocate of changes in DUI laws
is Becky Sturdevant. Her son, 29-year-old Highway Patrol trooper
Evan Schneider, was killed Aug. 26, 2008, in a head-on crash on
U.S. 2 near Bad Rock Canyon. The driver of the other vehicle was
legally alcohol-impaired.
A nurse practitioner in Kalispell,
Sturdevant is the most visible and vocal representative of Mothers
Against Drunk Drivers in the Flathead Valley. She plans to travel
to Helena in January to testify in support of bills that would
impose more severe penalties on impaired drivers.
She also wants a bill requiring
interlock devices be installed on all vehicles driven by people
convicted of a DUI, providing businesses that serve alcohol with
the ability to prevent intoxicated patrons from leaving, and
allowing police officers to conduct breathalyzer tests with a
warrant issued by telephone.
Sturdevant says she was “shocked” that
every proposed DUI-related bill failed to pass in the 2009
legislature. She acknowledges that one difficulty is the perception
that new DUI legislation could infringe on the rights of
Montana.
“Public safety is what we’re talking
about, though,” she said. “We’re not talking about rights. You do
not have the right to kill me.”
The legislature’s interim Law and
Justice Committee has considered several DUI-related proposals over
the past six months, including stopping youths under 18 years of
age from driving if they are convicted of being a minor in
possession. If convicted of MIP, the driver’s license would be
suspended until the youth reaches 18, and the youth would not be
allowed to get a license until turning 18.
Another measure would allow Fish,
Wildlife and Parks game wardens the authority to issue MIP
citations. Many youth drinking parties take place on state or
federal forest lands. The committee approved the idea in June with
the stipulation that the game warden be responsible for the
follow-up investigation and prosecution process.
The committee also looked at allowing
counties the authority to enact ordinances that would penalize
“social hosts” who are present at functions where under-age youths
consume alcohol, and to provide for around-the-clock judges who
could authorize search warrants for breath- or blood-alcohol
tests.
David Carter, from the Yellowstone
County Attorney’s Office, recommended legislation that would codify
an “aggravated DUI” crime for suspects who refuse to allow breath-
or blood-alcohol tests, who have a high blood-alcohol content, or
who are repeat offenders.
The Boulder City Council joined two
other Montana towns in moving forward on the testing issue. In
August, the council approved an ordinance requiring DUI suspects to
submit to a breath- or blood-alcohol test. Violators face a minimum
of a $300 fine and three days in jail. Darby and Missoula had
already enacted similar ordinances.
Montana has an “implied consent”
statute that requires anyone operating a motor vehicle to submit to
testing when they are suspected of impaired driving. Failure to do
so could result in a six-month driver’s license suspension.