Statutory law in Georgia provides for a five-year "look-back" period in which, for drivers convicted twice of drunk driving within that timeframe, the two convictions will be deemed to constitute a second offense, which provides for heightened penalties. The look-back period also applies for license suspension. A DUI conviction in another state will count against a driver in Georgia.
Look-back periods are not uniform among the states, and a legislator in one state is raising some eyebrows by questioning both current law and a proposed bill that would modify the DUI law in his state. His challenge to the legislation is most centrally based on what he says is its undermining of "a way of life."
Rep. Alan Hale is from Montana, and he says that drunk driving laws in the state disservice as many people as they help. "These DUI laws are not doing our small businesses any good at all," he says. "They are destroying a way of life that has been in Montana for years and years."
Hale points to the vast distances between meeting places in Montana, and the fact that people are forced to drive to them to conduct business and socialize. The meeting sites are often, necessarily, bars and restaurants that serve alcohol.
Montana, like Georgia, currently has a five-year look-back period for DUI, but the new bill would extend that period to 10 years. Hale thinks that is unnecessary and ridiculous.
That view has brought him some heat, with comments from Mothers Against Drunk Driving national president Laura Dean-Mooney being representative. Dean-Mooney strongly supports look-back periods, and says that Hale's comments "insult those who have lost loved ones to drunk driving."
Related Resource: www.aolnews.com "Montana Rep. Says DUI Laws are "Destroying a Way of Life" March 31, 2011
