PROVIDENCE -- Governor Carcieri yesterday signed legislation
making it a criminal offense to drive with a .08 percent blood-alcohol
level, after an 11-year struggle by law-enforcement officials and
friends and parents of drunken-driving victims.
"No family in Rhode Island should experience that kind of pain," the
governor said.
"I never thought it would happen," said Richard Morsilli, who sat with
the dignitaries at the State House ceremony yesterday and stood near the
governor as Carcieri signed the legislation. "I've been here testifying
for so many years."
Morsilli's son Todd, then a 13-year-old tennis star, was killed by a
drunken driver 20 years ago. Year after year, Morsilli said, he would go
to the State House to testify with other drunken-driving opponents --
reliving the death of his son -- trying to get a tougher drunken driving
law.
"You go there and you spill your guts out to the lawmakers, and nothing
happens," Morsilli said. "No matter what the victims say, nothing
happens."
The House bill was sponsored by Rep. Peter T. Ginaitt, D-Warwick, a
Warwick Fire Department rescue captain. The Senate bill was sponsored by
Sen. Joseph M. Polisena, D-Johnston, a former firefighter. Both have
experience in pulling dead victims out of wrecked cars.
"The law is not going to bring back those people I say have been
murdered" by drunken drivers, Polisena said yesterday. He told the
representatives from MADD in the audience that "You people are true
heroes, to be up here year after year, and be disappointed -- only not
this year."
In a statement, Atty. Gen. Patrick C. Lynch also hailed the new law,
calling it "a giant leap toward restoring a reputation that we have
earned but definitely do not want -- having the nation's highest
percentage of total highway fatalities involving alcohol, according to
the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration."
Several things were different this year, including the fact that a
federal deadline was expiring. If the General Assembly had not acted
this session, the state would have started losing millions of dollars in
federal transportation money for not complying with federal standards.
The hotel and restaurant industry, which had consistently blocked the
bill in past years, hesitated and then did a turnabout. Polisena said he
asked representatives of that group, "Are you going to make up the $17
million?"
Polisena also said The Providence Journal improved the bill's chances
when it published federal statistics showing Rhode Island led the nation
in the proportion of fatal accidents involving alcohol.
While the Senate has passed the bill repeatedly, this is the first year
the House has followed suit.
Speakers yesterday said the new House leadership, headed by Speaker
William J. Murphy, D-West Warwick, set out to pass the bill. After years
of frustration, Ginaitt, the House sponsor, said he was surprised early
in the session by a summons from the leadership: "I was called upstairs
and told, 'We've got to get .08 passed.' "
