Topeka — A bill that would toughen penalties for repeat drunken-driving offenders went on a roller-coaster ride Thursday.
The measure appeared dead when Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman John Vratil announced the committee would not consider it.
Lawrence Police Officer Max Dickens stops a driver for a traffic violation during a recent night shift.
"It means we've been done in for the third year in a row," said Nancy Lindberg, an assistant to Atty. Gen. Carla Stovall, after Vratil's announcement.
Efforts to pass similar legislation, which was initially crafted by a task force appointed by Stovall, have been defeated in 1999 and 2000.
"For the third year in a row we have not had this committee work the bill," Lindberg said.
But shortly afterward, Sen. David Adkins, R-Leawood, a member of the Judiciary Committee who has announced plans to run for attorney general in 2002, ran to the House to find a House member to carry the tougher penalties bill as an amendment to another bill dealing with drunken driving that the House was to consider later. Several hours later, Rep. Daniel Williams, R-Olathe, offered the amendment, and the House advanced the bill with the tougher drunken-driving penalties on a 75-35 vote.
The House will take a final vote on the measure today.
If adopted, it will go back to the Senate, probably ending up in a conference committee of House and Senate members to work out differences between the chambers' respective versions.
The measure, backed by the Kansas chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, would require that second-time offenders spend at least 10 days in jail. Now, many second-time offenders spend a weekend behind bars.
The bill also would increase jail time for third-, fourth-, and fifth-time offenders.
Vratil said he wasn't familiar with the bill and did not know if he supported it.
He said his committee did not have the time to consider the bill. Saturday is the deadline for many bills to be approved by both the House and Senate.
Through Williams, Adkins got the measure added on to a Senate bill that was considered in the House. That bill would require that drivers install interlock ignition devices after a second drunken-driving conviction if their blood-alcohol content exceeded .15 percent.
Lindberg said she was pleased by the House action.
If the House gives final approval today, she said, "it's one of many DUI provisions that will go to conference committee. We won't get all of them but we will get some."
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