‘Super drunk’ law now enforceable locally

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Though the “super drunk” drivers law went into effect in 2010, it’s now fully enforceable after Gov. Rick Snyder signed a bipartisan package of bills last week.

The “super drunk” law gives harsher penalties to drivers who have a blood-alcohol level of more than 0.17 percent, just over double the legal limit of 0.08 percent. The driver faces up to 180 days in prison and $200 to $700 in fines if convicted, as opposed to up to 93 days in prison and a fine between $100 and $500 for someone who is not “super drunk.”

Since the maximum prison term was increased, law enforcement officers were unable to write tickets for violators of the “super drunk” law. Prior to the new law municipalities such as Mount Pleasant could only enforce 93-day misdemeanors under local ordinances. Now, they have the flexibility to prosecute cases under local ordinance instead of state law.

“We must all work together to combat drunken driving and keep our roads safe,” Snyder said in a press release. “This legislation gives communities the tools to be effective partners in protecting Michigan families.”

Mount Pleasant Public Information Officer Jeff Browne said ordinances conflicting with the new law was the issue the Mount Pleasant Police Department had with enforcing the law.

“The problem we ran into was that we could not enforce it through city law,” Browne said. “We had to go through state law in order to enforce the ‘super drunk’ law, which isn’t harder. It’s just that there’s more paperwork.”

Browne said roughly 40 percent of drunken driving cases the police department dealt with last year involved super drunk drivers.

“(For) regular drunk drivers, through the city attorney’s office, 87 were processed,” Browne said. “‘Super drunks’ that we tracked through the prosecuting attorney’s office was 60.”

Milan sophomore Meagan Sanders said the “super drunk” law is fair, and she is glad to hear the law is now easier to enforce.

“I know a guy who was caught drunk driving at a level of .2, and he had his license restricted for 60 days,” Sanders said. “(He) had to pay a few fines, and that was it, and it wasn’t his first time.”

Sanders said she was upset when she learned about his minor punishment, because it’s so dangerous and “all he got was a slap on the wrist.”

“I’m glad to see that the punishment is more severe now, because I think this will deter people more from doing it,” she said.