“I understand there’s punishment, but I believe that the breathalyzer in the car after a first offense is too much,” he said. Wender admitted he himself has an OVI conviction on his record.
The driver blows into the breathalyzer device, which measures Blood Alcohol Content levels before starting the vehicle. The driver must register a BAC below .025, half of the legal limit of .08, to be able to turn on the ignition. Ignition interlock devices are now required for drivers convicted of OVI twice in six years. Current regulations require first-time offenders to have their license suspended for 15 days, then they get limited privileges.
Supporters of the bill, including the National Transportation Safety Board, cite research over 20 years that shows the devices reduce recidivism among OVI offenders up to 75 percent, according to NTSB statistics.
Drivers arrested and convicted of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol on average drive impaired 80 times, or once every four to five days, for every time they’re pulled over, said Lt. Brian Aller, Commander of the Ohio State Highway Patrol Springfield Post. Drivers with multiple OVI convictions and lifetime suspensions from those arrests are still pulled over by troopers and other law enforcement, he said.
“As law and safety enforcement, that’s very frustrating,” Aller said. “To me, that’s somebody that just hasn’t learned and may not learn based on the consequences.”
Troopers conducted 416 OVI stops in Clark County in 2013, Aller said. The state database of habitual OVI offenders lists 77 offenders that live in Clark County and 29 in Champaign County. A habitual OVI offender is a driver with five or more convictions in the past 20 years.
In March, Teddy Templeton, 56, was convicted of his 15th OVI by a Clark County judge and was sentenced to five years in prison and a $10,500 fine. At his sentencing, Clark County Assistant Prosecutor Lisa Fannin said her office had addressed 30 OVI convictions in the past year.
“It’s an epidemic, at least here it seems,” she said. “It’s something that we’re not going to take lightly here in Clark County.”
Although Wender doesn’t agree with the proposed bill, he does not know of a better solution and said offenders will find a way to elude the system.
“Some people that have eight, nine or 10 (OVIs) there’s obviously no punishment that’s going to make them be like, ‘Oh, I shouldn’t go out and do this,’ and they’re just going to do it,” Wender said.
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