Senator Eliot Shapleigh - El Paso, Texas

AUSTIN – The state Senate voted to step up enforcement against drunken driving Monday, approving sobriety checkpoints – a practice banned in Texas for 15 years – and expanding the situations where police could force suspects to take a blood or breath tests.

Texas leads the nation in alcohol-related traffic deaths, and supporters pushed through the changes over objections that the get-tough bills would disrupt many more innocent drivers than they would nab guilty ones.

Under the sobriety checkpoint proposal tentatively approved, police would have to pick spots for a roadblock based on a history of problems in the area and then advertise the location. The stop couldn't involve checks on driver's license or proof of insurance, and individuals couldn't be detained for more than three minutes.

The bill also goes beyond what other states have done by including a list of guidelines designed to safeguard against harassing certain bar owners, profiling certain drivers or causing unreasonable delays, said bill author state Sen. John Carona, R-Dallas.

"We're not taking anyone's rights away. We're trying to make sure my right and your right to drive safely is protected," Carona said.

The bill passed 20-11, with four Democrats and seven Republicans opposing it. It faces one more procedural vote in the Senate later this week, then goes to the House, where its fate is uncertain.

Law struck down

Texas is among only a dozen states that don't allow sobriety checkpoints, which were halted in 1994 after courts struck down the old state law for virtually no standards on the how roadblocks should be conducted.

Checkpoints could save 300 lives a year in Texas, Carona said, citing federal highway safety experts.

But opponents said that no matter how many rules are placed on the roadblocks, they are still designed to question a line of people, most of whom have done nothing wrong.

"You are stopping and harassing innocent people who are not drinking," said state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa, D-McAllen. "I don't believe by taking away a person's rights that we're going to save more lives."

State Sen. Bob Deuell, R-Greenville, said stopping every fourth car still doesn't give police probable cause or justify the inconvenience and invasion of privacy.

"I imagine if police went out and searched every third house they'd probably find something illegal," he said.

To overcome objections, Carona limited the checkpoints to cities with populations over 500,000 or for sheriff's departments that operate in the 15 counties with over 250,000 population. Also, the entire program is subject to a legislative review in six years.

Because almost 1,300 have died and 30,000 were injured in 2007 alcohol-related accidents, Carona told his colleagues, "We have to do something different than we're doing today."

The other drunken driving bill by Deuell would allow police to order blood or breath tests against anyone police suspect of being drunk if the driver or boater has a previous DWI conviction or if there is a child in the car or boat. It extends the involuntary testing if the suspect is involved in an accident where someone is injured.

The bill was unanimously approved.

Current law allows such involuntary testing only in accidents involving death or serious bodily injury.

Deuell said the bill was needed because more than half the people pulled over for suspected drunken driving refuse blood-alcohol tests.

Lilly's bill

The bill was named for 13-year-old Nicole "Lilly" Lalime, who was killed by a suspected drunken driver last December as she stepped off a school bus in front of her Harris County home.

"We had a good day today," said Bill Lewis, legislative director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "Law enforcement in the largest cities now will have a tool to deter drunk driving."

Lewis predicted the chances of proposals becoming law are the best in MADD's 15 years of trying, but acknowledged, "It's going to be tough in the House."

State Sen. John Carona's bill allowing sobriety checkpoints would include several restrictions on law enforcement:

•Officers would have to advertise the site of the checkpoint.

•The area would have to have a history of alcohol-related arrests and traffic accidents in the previous year.

•No area could have a checkpoint more than once a year.

•Officers could not detain an individual for more than three minutes without probable cause.

•They could not ask for a driver's license or proof of insurance without establishing probable cause that a crime had been committed.

•A set pattern would have to be followed, such as stopping every fourth car.

•The checkpoint could not be maintained for more than four hours.