CHARLESTON — Months of poring over West Virginia’s laws against drunken driving and examining the burgeoning field of technology to deal with one of the nation’s leading social ills could lead to some definite ideas of combating impaired motorists in December interims.

Even then, however, a specific bill might not be in the works until lawmakers meet again in January, days before opening the 2008 legislative session.

“There are a lot of different viewpoints, as you imagine,” says Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, a co-chair of a special judiciary subcommittee looking into DUI laws.

“The major consideration is trying to bifurcate the offense in a typical DUI when you have .08 blood alcohol content and an aggravated DUI, which is .15.”

Drivers with the higher BAC make up about half of those arrested, Foster says.

“Those are the ones that do the most serious damage and are usually the chronic offenders,” says Foster, a Charleston surgeon. “We want to make those penalties higher for those folks and use the Interlock device for the first-time offender, making it much more commonly used there.”

Interlocks are attached to the ignition of an offender and prevent the vehicle from starting if they get an alcohol reading too high when the driver blows into the device. Existing law makes the use of such devices optional.

“It’s my belief that this is the future of dealing with this problem as the technology improves in the next 10 years,” Foster says.

“I think it’s important for the public to get more comfortable with the idea. Of course, we’ve got to deal with the issue of regional jail costs, which are affected to a certain extent by DUI penalties, driving with revoked, whether that’s DUI or some other offense. We’re trying to deal with those as well as the safety treatment programs.”

Foster has been working closely, year-long, with an ad hoc task force headed by the West Virginia chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, whose director, Donna Hawkins, has played a key role in raising public awareness of the issue.

“It’s fairly comprehensive,” Foster said. “We’ve had some good working proposals.”

In December interims, the senator expects the task force to spell out its goals and convert them into special legislation in the January session.

“That may not be the one ultimately approved,” he said. “We may approve something as a springboard for some further things that are done before we introduce the final piece.”

Gov. Joe Manchin says his staff is exploring both the aggravated DUI proposal and the mandatory Interlocks. A year ago, drunken drivers killed 129 people in West Virginia while leaving 2,600 with non-fatal injuries.

“I will support anything I can to take drunk drivers off the highway,” Manchin said in an interview last week.

Foster said the task force plans to keep meeting up until the 2008 session begins.

“I’m hopeful we’ll have a piece of legislation for the session, based on our discussions and all the ideas that have been heard,” he added.

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