...to curb OWI incidents

By Joe Gerrety
Journal and Courier - 10/10/99

Here is a list of legal and procedural reforms proposed by the parents of Sarah Towery and Chip Smith, who were killed when drunken driver Jeffrey Pedone Trout crashed into their vehicle last March on Tippecanoe County Road 350 South.

Dan Towery, Sarah's father, calls it the "Sarah Towery-Chip Smith Drunk Driving Reform Initiative - A Victims' Drunk Driving Bill of Rights."

1. A nationwide uniform computerized system of criminal and traffic record keeping that helps law enforcement keep track of offenders who use aliases, change their Social Security numbers or have convictions in multiple states. Towery proposes using a "silicon eye" to digitize offenders' fingerprints.
2. Make use of ignition interlock devices mandatory for anyone convicted of drunken driving. The device is attached to the offender's vehicle and requires the offender to pass a breath test before the engine will start.
3. Make "dram shop" insurance, liability insurance to protect third parties against injuries and damage caused by people who become intoxicated at a bar, a precondition for obtaining a liquor license. (The Towerys and the parents of Chip Smith have a civil lawsuit against the Mirage nightclub, where Trout had been drinking the day of the crash, and initially they were fearful Mirage owner Rodger Heer did not have such insurance.)
4. Impound the vehicles of convicted drunken drivers caught driving while suspended. Trout's license was suspended at the time of the fatal crash.
5. Mandatory training for bartenders. James W. Irwin, the bartender who served Trout at the Mirage before his crash, had been on the job for only a matter of weeks. His application for a bartender's license was still being reviewed by the Indiana Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
6. Make habitual substance offenders ineligible to receive a bartender's license. Irwin had multiple drunken driving convictions and was designated a habitual substance offender in 1995.
7. Mandatory revocation of a bartender's license for serving an intoxicated customer. Currently, a bartender who does so can face misdemeanor criminal charges. And administratively, he can be fined, suspended, or have his license permanently revoked by the Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
8. Disallow insurance waivers that allow convicted drunken drivers to obtain automobile insurance, and thereby register their vehicles, even though they don't have valid drivers' licenses. The Towerys' attorney, Michael Langford, said the pickup truck Trout was driving when he caused the triple fatality was covered under Trout's business insurance policy, but the policy excluded him as a driver. His girlfriend was listed as the primary driver.
9. Increase penalties for defendants who ask for continuances of their court proceedings and later are found guilty. The Towerys believe that if a guilty plea hearing on OWI charges in Boone County had not been postponed in December 1998, Boone County officials would have discovered that Trout was on probation in Tippecanoe County, and he might have been jailed before the fatal crash in March 1999.
10. Hire more probation officers. The Towerys suspect that if the Tippecanoe County probation officer assigned to Trout had not had an excessive caseload, he might have found out about Trout's drunken driving arrest in Boone County and revoked Trout's probation, taking him off the road.
11. Standardize among the states the blood-alcohol content for driving while intoxicated at .08 percent and adopt uniform standards for defining misdemeanor and felony drunken driving. The Towerys believe this would allow the courts, probation officers and police to compile more accurate criminal and traffic records as they track offenders from one state to another.