House approves alcohol ban on interlock users
Posted at: 03/04/2013 5:36 PM
| Updated at: 03/04/2013 5:39 PM
By: Stuart Dyson, KOB Eyewitness News 4
How about this for a DWI crackdown?
You get convicted of drunk driving, you get your ignition interlock, you get an interlock license - you can't buy any booze.
The state House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill Monday afternoon that would outlaw liquor sales to people with interlock licenses. The bill's sponsor got the idea from something he saw with his own two eyeballs at a Santa Fe convenience store.
Rep. Brian Egolf was gassing up his car when he saw a man come out of the store with a 20 ounce bottle of Coca Cola and two miniatures of Jack Daniels whiskey. The man got in his car, dumped the whiskey into the Coke, but he didn't take a drink. Not yet.
"This guy starts his car with an interlock," Egolf said. "He drives a few miles, then drives the rest of the way home, or to his destination, drinking a Jack and Coke - with an interlock there in his car! I thought, ‘This is absolutely unbelievable!’"
It's pretty easy for a clerk or a bartender to spot an interlock license - they're vertical - just like licenses for people under 21
The bill passed in the House on a 59 to 5 vote. It now goes to the state Senate, where lawmakers say it should be popular. This one could go all the way to the state law books.
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