California bill would crack down on repeat drunk drivers

from Lauren Hepler and Robert LewisCalMatters

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A coalition of lawmakers is planning a series of bills this legislative session to fundamentally change the way California deals with dangerous drivers, Assemblyman Nick Schultz of Burbank said this week.

Schultz, a Democrat who chairs the Assembly Public Safety Committee, released the details of his opening Monday, proposing legislation that would increase penalties for repeat drunk drivers.

He said the bill was intended to be the “tip of the spear” in a larger movement to address the issues raised by CalMatters’ License to Kill series. The investigation showed how, while the number of road deaths rises, the state of California routinely allows dangerous drivers with appalling histories to continue to drive on our roads.

“California is behind the eight, frankly, compared to a lot of other states in the country,” Schultz said in an interview. “We have to do a better job.”

His a new bill would make it easier for prosecutors to charge repeat DUI offenders with a felony, punish some of those drivers with longer license suspensions, and extend their use of ignition interlock devices, which are car breathers that the driver must blow into to start the car.

The proposed changes come after alcohol-related deaths on California’s roads jumped more than 50 percent in the past decade — an increase twice as sharp as the rest of the country, federal estimates show. More than 1,300 people die each year statewide in drunken driving crashes. CalMatters investigation revealed that the state has some of the weakest DUI laws in the country and fails to enforce many of the laws that are on the books.

Here, for example, a driver generally cannot be charged with a felony until his fourth DUI in 10 years. Schultz’s bill would allow prosecutors to file felony charges for a third DUI — a “paradigm shift” for sentencing, he said, that would bring California more in line with other states like Oregon, where he has worked as a DUI prosecutor.

The bill would also require any driver who receives a fifth DUI conviction within 10 years to have their license suspended for five years and to install an immobilizer in the car for four years.

Schultz said the measure, and those expected to follow, will give the state a better system to identify dangerous drivers and intervene before it’s too late. Its purpose is to “bridge the gap” between the court system and state regulators at the DMV. The effort was spurred, he added, by a combination of victims’ families calling for change and CalMatters’ reports.

“It’s massive and I hear about it in my community,” Schultz said. “The Capitol community is paying more attention to this because of the investigative reporting, and I think that’s a good thing.”

Other lawmakers are exploring ways to keep reckless drivers on the road longer, increase penalties for hit-and-runs and fatal DUIs, further expand dragnet requirements and change the DMV’s point system. This system is set up to identify short-term clusters of dangerous driving behavior as opposed to long-term patterns. As a result, some drivers with impressive records manage to stay on the road.

Separately, Republican Assemblyman Tom Lackey of Palmdale plans to introduce at least three DUI reform bills in the upcoming session, according to his office.

Details of other road safety bills are expected to be announced in the coming weeks, officials say, and will include a push for more funding from the DMV to address cost concerns. California used to be a leader in these matters, but elected officials proved reluctant to address traffic deaths at a time when they have prioritized criminal justice reform and economic inequality, and the DMV said it does not have the resources to implement change.

The pendulum can swing. After recent high-profile crashes, officers and advocates across the state are stepping up calls to crack down on dangerous driving.

Last spring, Brown Levy High School tennis standout was killed by what prosecutors say was a repeat drunken driver, just months after his family’s home burned in the Palisades fire.

Last month, District Attorney Nathan Hochman filed manslaughter charges against the driver and held a news conference urging the Legislature, the governor, the DMV and judges to do more to avoid similar deaths.

Hochman highlighted many of the findings in the CalMatters series, noting that vehicular manslaughter is not considered a violent crime in California and citing the fact that it is one of the few states that does not require first-time DUI offenders to install immobilizers in the car.

“What other problem do we have when we actually have preventable deaths that we absolutely know will occur if we just keep doing the status quo?” Hochman said.

State Sen. Bob Archuleta, D-Norwalk and a member of the Senate Transportation Committee, joined Hochman at the podium. Archuleta’s granddaughter was killed by an alleged drunken driver in 2024, and he said he intends to propose legislation to increase the consequences for fatal DUI crashes.

“My colleagues in the state senate, my colleagues in the assembly, please work with us,” Archuleta said. “Because we have to do some things that will shake the trees a little bit.”

Brown’s mother, Jennifer Levy, called for more action at the news conference.

“California’s current DUI laws are broken and weak and fail to protect families like ours, and that’s devastating,” Levy said. “His death haunts my every breath, my every day.”

She said she is committed to advancing legislation to restructure DUI sentencing and increase deterrence and punishment. Archuleta’s office said it is finalizing a draft of such a bill.

“This is not a political issue, this is a human issue,” Levy said. “I guarantee that if any of you had to identify the body of your child or loved one the way my husband and I did a few months ago, you would not be silent.”

This article was originally published on CalMatters and is republished under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives license.