Committee to vote on bill that would require court appearances for OWIs

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A committee of state Assembly lawmakers are schedule to vote on a group of bills related to drunken driving, including one that would require court appearances for citations issued for driving while intoxicated.

The Assembly Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety had a public hearing on the following bills earlier this month:

• AB 15 proposes changing state law so that people who receive a citation for drunken driving or driving while intoxicated must appear in court. Failure to appear in court would result in a default judgment and a $300 surcharge.
• AB 18 would make first-time drunken driving a offenses a Class C misdemeanor, meaning a person could be fined as much as $500, imprisoned for up to 30 days, or both. Under current law, a first-time offense is a civil forfeiture that results in a citation unless there was a passenger in the vehicle who was under the age of 16. Offenders pay a forfeiture of between $150 and $500.
• AB 16 proposes imposing at least an 18-month prison sentence on people who get a fifth or sixth OWI.
• AB 17 would impose a mandatory minimum sentence of 5 years in prison on people convicted of homicide by the intoxicated use of a vehicle.
• AB 7 proposes prohibiting any intoxicated person under the age of 21 from operating a snow mobile. Current law prohibits any intoxicated person under the age of 19 from operating a snow mobile.

Lawmakers on the committee are slated to vote on the bills at 11 a.m. on Thursday in Room 225 Northwest in the state Capitol.

The next step for any bills the committee recommends for passage would be a vote on the floor of the full Assembly.