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By Chris Sundheim INDIANAPOLIS -- Members of a Senate committee on Tuesday endorsed a bill to lower Indiana's standard for drunken driving, one day after a House committee passed a similar measure.
Lawmakers voted 7-3 to allow the bill to advance to the floor of the full Senate for the first time in more than a decade. The bill would reduce the level at which drivers are considered drunk from a blood-alcohol content of 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent. Sen. Tom Wyss, R-Fort Wayne, has introduced the legislation in 10 of the last 11 years, but his bill has reached the floor of the Senate just once. That was in 1990, when the measure died later in the House. Prospects for the legislation appear to be improving during this session, thanks in large part to a new federal mandate that threatens to withhold highway dollars from states that don't adopt the reduced standard. A House committee on Monday voted to advance its own proposal with an amendment that would allow courts to dismiss criminal charges in some cases. Wyss told committee members he wanted the Senate bill to proceed without any amendments until state officials receive an opinion from the government about whether the House amendment satisfies the new federal requirement. The amended House bill would permit courts to dismiss charges against people arrested with blood-alcohol levels of 0.08 percent and 0.09 percent, provided that those defendants meet several key conditions. Only defendants without prior convictions and those whose offense does not involve injury or property damage would qualify. Congress enacted a law last fall that will begin penalizing states that don't adopt the 0.08 percent standard by 2004. Indiana is among 31 states that have a 0.10 percent standard or do not set a specific standard. |
