Tucson Region

Dupnik wants to outlaw any drinking at all by drivers

Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik is calling for a new law that would make any drinking and driving illegal - even if the driver is not impaired. Only stricter penalties and a stronger community will solve the problem of drunken drivers, he said at a press conference Wednesday. "There isn't one person in this community who hasn't heard the phrase 'Don't drink and drive,'" Dupnik said. Yet his agency already has arrested more than 1,200 impaired drivers this year, he said. "They say Big Brother doesn't need to regulate this, but we, the taxpayers, pay the bills" when drunken drivers cause accidents, he said. Dupnik is not optimistic that such a bill could become law, but he said more dialogue on the topic is needed. He already has won the support of two political leaders and officials with Mothers Against Drunk Driving. State Rep. Ted Downing, whose stepfather and brother were killed by drunken drivers, said the penalty for drinking and driving when the driver is not impaired should be an education course at the offender's expense. "We're not saying you can't drink; just don't drive," he said. The Governor's Office of Highway Safety is interested in Dupnik's idea, too, director Richard Fimbres said. "It's time to shake up how we do things in Arizona," he said. In recent years, Arizona has enacted steeper consequences for drunken drivers, he said. The minimum blood-alcohol level for impairment was reduced in 2001 to 0.08 percent. Fines and fees have increased, and the number of citations issued has risen, too. Dupnik hopes to have legislation drafted for the next session. But the proposal already faces strong opposition. "There's no rational basis for that law, because people can have something to drink and then drive a car with no effect and no danger to the public," said attorney James Nesci, an expert in DUI cases. "Why don't we make a law that people can't drive after they eat white bread?" Local attorney Stephen Barnard, who heads the DUI committee for the nonprofit Arizona Attorneys for Criminal Justice, said the law sounds like prohibition, which the public won't support. And it would kill local tourism, he said. A local bar owner called the proposed law an unrealistic, bureaucratic solution. "The people who are creating problems are the people who won't get this, who will be just as negligent in drinking and driving and hoping not to get caught, no matter what the level," said Bill Nugent, who owns The Shanty bar on North Fourth Avenue. As an alternative, Nugent suggested alcohol-tax money could be used to educate children about alcohol and drug abuse.