By Leo Shane III
Enquirer Columbus Bureau

COLUMBUS - Repeat drunken drivers could spend up to five extra years in jail under a bill approved by the Legislature this week.

The bill, approved unanimously by the Senate this week, would add a mandatory prison sentence of up to five years for anyone convicted of drunken driving with five or more DUIs in their past. It would also add 21/2 years in prison for anyone convicted of four drunken driving crimes in a six-year span.

Doug Scoles, executive director of Ohio's Mothers Against Drunk Driving chapter, said the measure will save lives.

"We want to make sure we're getting the worst offenders," he said. "This identifies the high-risk people so we can get them off the road."

Under current law, judges can pose additional jail time for repeat offenders, but can only consider DUI convictions in the last six years. The new bill extends that to 20 years, which Scoles said will provide a better look at how dangerous a repeat offender really is.

"Now you can get an offender who goes six years and can wipe the slate clean," he said. "That's too short to see an accurate history of somebody who has a problem.

"We would have liked a lifetime look-back, but 20 years does a fair job of showing that history."

Sen. Steve Austria, R-Beavercreek, carried the bill in the Senate and called the statistics on repeat drunken drivers "staggering." Keeping them off Ohio's roadways, he said, will make all Ohioans safer.

The bill also eliminates the requirement that first-time offenders display a special drunken-driver license plate after their driving privileges are reactivated.

Under the new proposal, only those with a blood-alcohol level exceeding 0.17 - more than double the 0.08 limit - would be required to post the plates. Judges would be granted discretion whether lesser first-time offenders should display them.

Gov. Bob Taft is expected to sign the bill sometime next week.