Governor Signs Annie's Law: Ignition Interlocks and Longer Suspensions for First-Time Drunk Drivers

Published January 5, 2017 · New Laws

On the Fourth of July in 2013, a drunk driver killed Annie Rooney of Chillicothe. Yesterday, January 4, 2017, Governor Kasich signed the bill that carries her name. House Bill 388, "Annie's Law," passed the General Assembly without a dissenting vote in December, and according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving it was carried by Representative Gary Scherer in the House and Senators Bob Peterson and Jay Hottinger in the Senate. It is the most significant change to Ohio's first-offense drunk-driving penalties in years, and it matters to every family in the Dayton area that shares the road with a driver who has had too much.

What the law changes

Annie's Law does not take effect until April 6, 2017, ninety days after signing, so the rules below are not yet in force. (You may see April 4 reported; the Ohio Revised Code's own history notes list April 6.) Once effective, here is what changes for a first-time OVI offender:

A longer minimum suspension. Under R.C. 4511.19(G)(1)(a) as amended, a first-offense license suspension runs for a definite period of one to three years. Today the minimum is six months, so the floor doubles.

Interlocks for first offenders. A new section, R.C. 4510.022, lets a first-time offender petition the court for "unlimited driving privileges" on one condition: every vehicle the offender drives must be equipped with a certified ignition interlock device. An interlock is a breath tester wired to the ignition. If the driver blows above the preset level, the car will not start. Until now, Ohio required interlocks mainly for repeat offenders and left them to a judge's discretion for first-timers.

A carrot. When a court grants unlimited privileges with an interlock, it may reduce the suspension by up to half, and it must suspend any jail term for the offense. The court keeps jurisdiction, and if the offender violates the order, the jail term comes back. MADD describes the reduction as available to first offenders who use the interlock for at least six months.

A stick. If the interlock records a violation, such as a failed breath test or an attempt to drive a car without the device, the court can order remote alcohol monitoring and can lengthen the suspension. If a violation happens within the last sixty days of the suspension, R.C. 4510.13(A)(8)(d) requires the court to extend both the suspension and the interlock requirement so that the suspension ends sixty days after the violation. The Bureau of Motor Vehicles cannot reinstate a license while a violation sits inside that final sixty-day window.

MADD's national president put the organization's view simply: "Many lives will be saved as Ohio increases the number ignition interlocks used by drunk driving offenders." The organization points to states with all-offender interlock laws, such as West Virginia and New Mexico, where drunk-driving deaths dropped sharply.

Why a former police sergeant thinks this matters

I spent nineteen years with the Dayton Police Department. The drunk driver who kills someone is very rarely a first-time drinker and driver; he is usually a first-time caught drinker and driver, and a license suspension on paper has never kept anyone from turning a key. An interlock does. For the first time, Ohio will put the device in the cars of first offenders in meaningful numbers rather than waiting for a second or third conviction. That is a real safety gain for every motorist on I-75, Far Hills Avenue, and State Route 48.

It will also make cases easier to prove. An offender driving on an interlock order who causes a crash in a borrowed, non-equipped car has violated a court order, and that fact will be in the record from the start.

What the criminal case cannot do for a victim

Here is the part that the press coverage of Annie's Law leaves out. The criminal case punishes the driver and, we hope, keeps him from doing it again. It does not pay your hospital bills, replace your income, or compensate your family for a death. Restitution orders in traffic court are typically small, limited to out-of-pocket amounts, and collected slowly if at all. The civil claim is the only process designed to make a victim whole.

That civil claim runs on its own track, with its own evidence and its own deadlines, whether or not the driver is ever convicted. We use the criminal case where it helps, for example a guilty plea or a breath result, but we never wait for it.

Punitive damages: where a drunk driver pays more

Ohio law allows a jury to award punitive damages, in addition to compensation for your losses, when the defendant's conduct demonstrates malice. R.C. 2315.21 requires that showing by clear and convincing evidence and generally caps punitive damages at twice the compensatory award. Courts have long recognized that choosing to drive while intoxicated can rise to the conscious disregard of others' safety that supports a punitive award, which I explained in Punitive Damages in Ohio: When a Defendant's Conduct Is Bad Enough.

Two practical points follow. First, punitive damages are often excluded from the driver's liability policy, which means collectability depends on the driver's assets and on other defendants. Second, when punitive damages are awarded, the attorney fees that come with them may still be the insurer's responsibility; see Drunk-Driver Crash Victims Win: Insurers Must Cover Attorney Fees Awarded With Punitive Damages.

Finding every responsible party

A drunk-driving crash claim should never stop at the driver's minimum-limits policy. We look at the bar or restaurant that kept serving a visibly intoxicated patron, and I wrote last spring about how demanding Ohio's Dram Shop Act can be in A Dayton Jury Gave a Crash Victim $2.85 Million. The Dram Shop Act Took It Away. We look at the owner of the car, the employer if the driver was working, and your own uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, which is frequently the largest source of recovery when a drunk driver carries little or no insurance.

What this means for you

Annie's Law is good news for the roads, and it will be fully in force this April. If a drunk driver has already hurt you or taken someone from your family, the new penalties will not change your case, but the strategy does not change either: document everything, decline the insurer's early offer, and get a lawyer involved while the bar's surveillance video, the driver's phone records, and the witnesses are still available.