Ohio adds creative penalties to arsenal

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Sunday, December 6, 1998

BY JANICE MORSE
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Throughout the 1990s, Ohio has devised more ways of battling drunken driving, including:

Administrative license suspension: If a driver refuses to take sobriety tests or if he tests above the legal blood-alcohol concentration of 0.10, a police officer may seize the driver's license on the spot. This automatic license suspension may last for 90 days to five years, and it is in addition to any court-imposed penalties.

Progressively harsher penalties: First-time offenders face three days in jail or in an intervention program, a fine of up to $1,000 and a court license suspension of up to three years. The penalties increase with each drunken driving conviction. Anyone with three or more DUI convictions in six years is charged with a felony if arrested again. The charge carries a mandatory sentence of 60 days, but may be extended up to a year. A second felony DUI carries a sentence of up to 18 months.

Mandatory alcohol abuse treatment: Required upon a driver's third DUI, paid by the offender. Also, in late 1999, Ohio is scheduled to open a "DUI prison." Located about 20 miles southeast of Cleveland, it will be a 500-bed minimum-security treatment lockup for drunken drivers and drug offenders.

Vehicle forfeiture: Ohio law says a court shall order permanent loss of a vehicle when, within a six-year span, a driver commits four DUIs, three instances of driving under suspension, or gets caught trying to drive a vehicle that was ordered immobilized. Vehicle owners who knowingly allow a suspended driver to operate a vehicle may also be subject to this penalty upon a second offense.

Prevention of vehicle registration: A judge may make a notation forbidding an offender from obtaining an Ohio vehicle registration for up to five years.

Vehicle immobilization: Devices that prevent vehicles from being moved are installed on vehicles and cars' license plates are impounded. The penalty may be imposed for up to 90 days for a second DUI. The penalty doubles to 180 days for third DUI.

Reporting hot lines: The toll-free (800) GRAB-DUI phone number was activated in 1991 to allow motorists to report suspected drunk drivers; two years later, the *DUI number was introduced to allow cellular telephone customers to report suspected DUIs free of charge.

Tracking multiple offenders: The Ohio Department of Public Safety publishes the HOT (Habitual Offenders' Tally) Sheet News, which is distributed to news reporters and law enforcement agencies. The newsletter reports on offenders arrested for multiple DUIs statewide.

Spreading the word: State officials mail notices to courts about drunken driving offenders; drunken driving information that was previously allowed to be removed from a driver's record is now kept permanently.

Source: Ohio Department of Public Safety

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