By Laura Lane
Under legislation proposed by state Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr., those convicted of DWI, including first-time offenders, would be sentenced to mandatory probation, which would include:
A minimum of one year with ignition interlock devices for first-time offenders.
A minimum of five years' probation with interlock devices for two-time offenders.
Life probation and interlock devices for three-time offenders.
The court would require proof of compliance by offenders, who would pay for installation of the interlock devices and the monthly service charges for them.
DWI by the numbers
Nassau County, 2007: 4,013 DWI arrests, 30 alcohol-related fatalities.
New York state, 2006: 52,273 DWI arrests, 558 alcohol-related fatalities.
When state Sen. Charles Fuschillo Jr. was first elected in 1998, he met with two distraught but determined women, Marge Lee and Deena Cohen. Both had lost children in accidents caused by drunk drivers, and Lee was seriously injured in the accident that claimed her son's life.
Lee, founder of Drive Educated Drive Informed Commit And Totally End Drunk Driving, or DEDICATEDD, and Cohen, president of the Long Island chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, were desperate to change the laws they believed were ineffective in deterring those convicted of DWI from repeating their crimes.
"These two women came to see me, and after listening to the tragic events of their lives, and because I'm a parent myself, I decided to do something about this," said Fuschillo, a Republican from Merrick.
The senator is confident that legislation he sponsored in the Senate to require mandatory probation and installation of ignition interlock devices for convicted drunk drivers in Nassau, Suffolk and five other New York counties will pass soon and help solve the problem of DWI recidivism. Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg, a Democrat from Long Beach, is sponsoring the legislation in the Assembly.
Fuschillo, Nassau County District Attorney Kathleen Rice, Lee and Cohen recently held a news conference in Mineola to show their support for the legislation.
"Even though New York state has enacted a number of significant laws to combat drunk driving, people are still dying on our roadways, and DWI is still the most tolerated crime in our nation," Fuschillo said. "We need a new tool in our arsenal to eradicate drunk driving. Interlock systems have been proven extremely effective in ensuring that drunk drivers, including first-time offenders, never drink and drive again."
An ignition interlock is installed on a vehicle's dashboard to measure the alcohol content of a driver's breath. Before the vehicle can be started, the driver must breathe into the device, which is about the size of an iPod. If the blood alcohol content reads higher than .08, the car will not start.
The driver must also breathe into the device at different times while driving. Some devices include a video camera to ensure that the driver is, in fact, breathing into the device. If the driver's blood alcohol content registers higher than .08, the car horn will honk and the lights will flash, alerting authorities that the driver should be pulled over. The offender's probation officer will be immediately contacted as well.
Rice, a Democrat, said, "Ignition interlock gives us one more tool to ensure that first-time offenders don't become repeat offenders. This bill is yet another piece of common-sense legislation that will save lives and help law enforcement keep families safe on New York state roads."
New York's interlock program began 20 years ago as a pilot in Albany, Erie, Monroe, Nassau, Onondaga, Suffolk and Westchester counties. The program allowed judges to mandate that DWI offenders use interlock devices, but it did not require judges to do so. Fuschillo's bill would make it mandatory that the device be used, even for first-time offenders.
"Some people believe that this is harsh for a first offender, but so many first offenders kill and maim," said Lee. "I was hit by a first-time offender. He killed my son, and I was severely injured. It is a fact that drunk driving kills. Installation of an ignition interlock device will disable the weapon and save lives."
The district attorney's office has stated it would also like to require that the devices used in Nassau County include cameras on the dashboard. This way, the identity of the offender would always be certain.
"If the legislation passes, we'd require second-time offenders to have the camera on the dashboard as of July 2008," said Maureen McCormick, chief of vehicular crimes. "Alcohol is legal and used perfectly well by some of the population, but for some people it destroys lives on every level."
Comments about this story? LLane@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 236.
