MADD wants ignition interlocks for DWI offenders

MADD wants ignition interlocks for DWI offenders

Jony Ventura and his 4-year-old daughter, Gabriela, were killed by a Houston woman with a prior drunken-driving conviction who was reportedly driving the wrong way on Texas 249 and struck their car.

Nicholas Hernandez — a convicted drunken driver himself — was killed on the Gulf Freeway when he was thrown from a car driven by a Pasadena man who had also pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated last year and whose driver’s license had just been reinstated.

At the time of his death, Hernandez was awaiting trial on a felony murder charge for killing James Casey Kelleher and Suzanne Penland while driving drunk on Texas 288, prosecutors said.

These fatal crashes involving repeat offenders are examples of why Mothers Against Drunk Driving is again pushing Texas legislators to require ignition interlocks for people convicted of their first driving while intoxicated offense.

The ignition interlock device tests a driver’s breath to confirm he or she hasn’t been drinking before the car will start. 

“We really want to see this on first-time offenders in order to prohibit the third or fourth time down the road,” said Hope Rangel of Humble, executive director for MADD’s Southeast Texas region.

Proposed legislation, including bills filed by state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, and state Rep. Bill Callegari, R-Katy, calls for the interlock to be installed for offenders convicted of their first DWI who are placed on probation.

Two similar measures filed in the last legislative session in 2007 died in committee.

Condition of probation

Current Texas law requires interlocks as a condition of probation only for repeat offenders or those with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.15 in any alcohol-related driving offense.

The device also is required for those released on bail while awaiting trial if they are charged with repeat DWI offenses or if they hurt or kill someone while driving drunk.

Although the proposed legislation is encouraging, Rangel said, many convicted drunken drivers in Harris County are opting for jail time instead of probation. If an offender chooses to go to jail, no interlock is installed. 

Drunken drivers put on probation have to pay for the device — which can average about $150 a month — so they might find jail more appealing, she said.

Callegari said he intends to revise his bill to require interlocks also for the first-time DWI convicts who choose jail over probation.

Idania Sagastisado, the 26-year-old woman accused of killing Ventura and his young daughter, spent 10 days in jail after she pleaded guilty to her first DWI in 2005.

After she drove the wrong way on Texas 249 and struck the Ventura family’s car Feb. 21, tests revealed Sagastisado’s blood-alcohol concentration was 0.22, nearly three times the legal limit, said Harris County sheriff’s Sgt. Susan Cotter. Sagastisado remains in jail on bail totaling $60,000.

Hernandez, 25, of Pasadena, who died Feb. 13, also did jail time when he was convicted of his second DWI in 2003 and was sentenced to 50 days behind bars. Prosecutors said his blood-alcohol concentration was 0.30, nearly four times the legal limit, when he killed Kelleher and Penland last summer.

“If the interlock law was already in place, we would not have seen repeat offenders with any of these,” Rangel said of the recent fatalities.

Devices get sophisticated

Sometimes, Harris County judges or prosecutors will order a first-time offender to install an interlock as a condition of bail or probation, but the law does not require it.

Interlock devices have become increasingly more sophisticated and harder to beat. Some have voice-recognition capability and require drivers to hum while they blow into the device.

Courts today are more often turning to interlocks with video cameras, so the person blowing into the device is captured on film, said Harris County prosecutor Warren Diepraam.

The devices also require a driver to do “rolling tests” — to pull over every few minutes and blow again — to keep the car operating.

Research suggests lawbreakers with prior DWI convictions are a serious problem. MADD claims such offenders comprise nearly one-third of the alcohol-related dangers on the road.

Last year, Texas had 124,662 residents with three or more DWI convictions, according to the state Department of Transportation. The agency reported 18,271 other Texans had five DWI convictions or more.

One person had 22 convictions, the most of any driver in the state, TxDOT said.

Drunken drivers involved in fatal crashes were eight times more likely to have a prior DWI conviction than sober drivers involved in a fatality, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported in 2007.

Two sides to legislation

Penland’s mother, Ann, of Deer Park, supports MADD’s push for ignition interlocks for all DWI convictions.

“It affects so many people when something like this happens,” Ann Penland said of drunken-driving deaths. “If there was a device that could have saved my daughter, why weren’t they on every offender’s car? Even if it was my own child that got a DWI, I would be for it, because that would keep them safe.” 

Not everyone supports MADD’s proposal. 

The American Beverage Institute, a restaurant trade association, is urging the Texas Legislature to reject the bills.

Institute spokeswoman Sarah Longwell said ignition interlocks for first-time DWI convicts “ignore the root cause of today’s drunk-driving problem: hard-core alcohol abusers.” 

Only eight states in the U.S. require or “provide strong incentives for” interlocks for all convicted drunken drivers, MADD says: Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Nebraska, New Mexico and Washington. MADD is pushing for all other states to follow suit.

LOCAL INTERLOCKS

How many Harris County drivers use ignition interlocks is unknown. The Department of Public Safety tracks such numbers statewide, but not by county.

In the past two years, Harris County’s criminal county courts, which handle misdemeanor cases, ordered 4,063 defendants to install ignition interlocks once their cases were resolved. 

The administrative office for Harris County’s district criminal courts, which handles felony cases, could not provide any interlock numbers.

RECENT FATALITIES

Deaths attributed to repeat DWI offenders:

• Feb. 21: A father and his 4-year-old daughter are killed by a Houston woman with a prior drunken-driving conviction who is driving the wrong way on Texas 249.

• Feb. 12: A Pasadena man, previously charged in a fatal drunken-driving crash, is killed by a drunken driver who also pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated last year.

• Feb. 11: A La Porte man with four prior drunken-driving convictions kills another driver in a head-on crash.

• Dec. 16: A 13-year-old is run over exiting a school bus in northwest Harris County. It is the 30-year-old man’s second drunken-driving arrest.

• Nov. 13: A man kills a 3-year-old boy and critically injures his mother in a crash in northeast Harris County. The crash marks his third drunken-driving charge.

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