DUI Legislation

By Gail Myers

Several alcohol-related legislative issues have been presented and voted on by the Tennessee State Legislature during the last session. State Senator Randy McNally of Oak Ridge sponsored three of these. They are the Administrative License Revocation bill, the Keg Registration bill, and the Social Host bill.

• The Administrative License Revocation bill calls for the automatic revocation of a driver’s license for a specified period of time if the Department of Safety determines that person driving was under the influence of an intoxicant or refuses alcohol test.
• The Keg Registration bill would require retailers of beer to label each keg at time of sale and obtain a signed receipt with purchaser’s name, address, and driver license number. Retailers would be required to keep receipts for 6 months and they would be available for inspection by law enforcement. Local beer boards would be required to revoke or suspend the permit of, or impose a civil penalty on, retailers who sell kegs for off-premises consumption without labeling the keg and retaining the receipt.
• The Social Host bill creates an exception to the “proximate cause” provision for cases where a person knowingly furnishes alcoholic beverages to another person under 21. Also, this bill would allow a jury to award damages against an individual who either furnished or sold alcoholic beverages to an underage person, instead of only against individual who sold such beverages to such underage person. Senator McNally has always worked closely with RID in the past and continues his support of our goals.

The other legislative bills were Mandatory BAC testing/Hospital reporting and Mandatory BAC testing by the police. The Mandatory BAC testing/hospital testing bill requires health care providers to notify law enforcement officers of blood or urine test results under certain circumstances – the BAC exceeds 0.10% or blood or urine contain 1 or more drugs that are capable of impairing a person’s ability to drive safely. The Mandatory BAC testing by the police requires law enforcement officers to conduct a BAC test of a driver involved in a collision resulting in serious bodily injury or death. The test can be conducted whether or not driver consents. There is a question concerning this bill however. It seems that the law enforcement officer can only request a blood alcohol test OR a drug test, not both. I will be investigating this more in the future and will continue to update you. It makes no sense to have the law enforcement officer make a quick decision on something that may have profound results in the future.

One bill that RID would like to see before the legislature is a limit set on the amount of time the TBI labs take to complete the blood alcohol test and the drug testing. Judges have had to reschedule hearings for suspected impaired drivers because their blood tests were not back from the lab. “That is just putting the criminal back on the street for a longer period of time” said by an Anderson County judge.

I would also like to see some type of supervisory program established for injured drivers who are suspected of driving while impaired, and waiting on the alcohol or drug tests to be returned from the TBI lab. These drivers are allowed to check out of the hospital after treatment and it may take months for all the tests to be completed. I personally know of two cases in the last year where the drivers have left the hospital. One moved to another state and has not been arrested yet and the other driver “disappeared” for a year before the police spotted him and he was arrested. This program would not only be for the injured driver, but any driver that is suspected of driving while impaired and the police are waiting on the blood tests before placing charges.