The long, hard fight to diminish driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs has taken some wrong turns of its own over the years — especially with devices such as random road blocks that cast aside probable cause.
But a new state law squarely hits the mark because it is rooted in hard experience and abundant research. Gov. Tom Wolf recently signed “Deanna’s Law.” It is named for Deanna Eckman, 45, of Delaware County, who was killed by a drunken driver in 2019. David Strowhouer, 33, whose blood alcohol level was more than twice the legal limit, crashed his father’s pickup truck head-on into a Subaru WRX driven by Eckman’s husband.
The crash was Strowhouer’s sixth DUI offense in nine years. At the time of the fatal crash, he was on parole from an earlier one-to-five-year sentence for an earlier DUI conviction. Following his conviction for third-degree murder, homicide by vehicle while DUI, and related offenses for Eckman’s death, he was sentenced to 24-to-51 years in state prison.
Research long has shown that repeat offenders are a particular problem regarding DUI. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, for example, a driver with a prior DUI conviction is about four times more likely than a first-time offender to be involved in a fatal crash. And more than a third of people arrested for DUI have a prior offense.
Deanna’s Law, which resulted from four years of ardent advocacy by her parents, Richard and Roseann DeRosa, addresses that problem. It upgrades a DUI charge to a third-degree felony if a driver has two or more previous DUI convictions, and to a second-degree felony if the driver has three or more convictions, changes that would produce longer prison terms. It also mandates that judges sentence DUI offenders to consecutive prison terms after their second DUI conviction.
Unlike random enforcement methods, those provisions will help ensure that more dangerous drivers who are established DUI risks will be off the roads for longer periods. As with any problem, focusing on known risks is most likely to produce positive results.
— The Citizens’ Voice, Wilkes-Barre via TNS
