Tuesday, August 27, 1996

Panel votes to crack down on drunken juveniles

By PEGGY FIKAC
Associated Press

AUSTIN - Sen. Jim Turner, D-Crockett, remembers the deaths of two high school classmates of his children in an alcohol-related accident.

Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, holds up a stack of fake identification cards picked up by the state on just one night in one store on South Padre Island during spring break.

Sen. Eddie Lucio, D-Brownsville, distributes a newspaper article detailing how hundreds of teen-agers cross the border into Matamoros to drink: "This is an every-weekend occurrence," he says.
Members of the Senate Interim Committee on Juvenile Driving While Intoxicated Laws know there's a problem with underage drinking.

Now they're recommending stiff punishment to fight it, including driver's license suspension for those under the legal drinking age of 21 found driving with any amount of alcohol in their system.
"Juvenile drinking and driving is absolutely unacceptable behavior, period. It is a serious and deadly action, and we mean business in the Legislature when we say this will no longer be tolerated," said Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano.

The Senate panel unanimously approved recommendations Monday to be forwarded to the 1997 session of the Legislature for consideration. Voting for it were Lucio, Shapiro, Turner, West and Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio.

The zero-tolerance proposal on underage drinking and driving has a financial incentive: While it's estimated to cost $1 million to implement, Texas would lose millions more in federal highway funding if such a law isn't enacted.

If there's no zero-tolerance law by Oct. 1, 1998, Texas would lose $38.4 million, according to a federal estimate. If there's no law a year later, it would lose another $76.8 million for highway construction and maintenance.

Other recommendations include a new driver's license system to limit teen-agers' after-midnight driving and harsher penalties for violating underage drinking laws, including driver's license suspension for non-driving offenses.

Besides the financial incentive to cut down on underage drinking, there's the cost in lives. According to state statistics for 1994, 5,645 people were killed or injured in accidents with an alcohol-impaired or intoxicated driver age 21 or under.

Turner, recalling the deaths several years ago of two Crockett High School classmates of his now college-age children, said, "When you go to a funeral of a young person that you know and that are classmates of your children, and you see the sadness and the tragedy and the heartache and the loss that that represents you certainly don't want to see it happen again."

West said he wants all the recommendations to be included in one bill to be filed for the upcoming legislative session, which begins in January. He also said he would like to see all the committee members sign on as co-authors.

"Our work is not over," he said. "It's basically just beginning."