Bill pushing ignition lock for first-time DUI offenders

BOSTON — Beacon Hill lawmakers are looking to tighten up drunk driving laws.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, and crash victims are supporting a bill that would require an ignition lock on the vehicles of first-time offenders. Currently, the device is installed for drivers with two or more OUI offenses.

A local family has been pushing this legislation in honor of their son who was killed by a drunk driver.

"We've lost a lot in our lives, but you hope that some good comes out of it. And this is one of the hopeful things that we're trying to get passed," said John Kotfila.

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Falmouth-native and sheriff's deputy John Kotfila Jr. was killed in March 2016 on a Florida highway in a wrong-way crash caused by a drunk driver.

Almost two years later, his father is fighting for passage of a bill that would require an ignition lock for first-time OUI offenses. Currently, first-time OUI offenders have their license suspended if they fail a sobriety test or refuse one.

"If it spares one, just one family to have to go through what we've gone through, it's worth it," said Kotfila.

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Ignition lock manufacturers say the cost of an interlock device can be scaled, but it usually runs from $2 to $2.50 per day it is installed.

"It's ensuring public safety because it's telling them, you can drive, but you're gonna be driving and you're not going to be drinking. So it's gonna save people's lives immediately," said Kotfila.

About ten years ago, Sarah Carmichael was making a left turn on Route 30 in Framingham when a driver with a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit ran a red light an hit her.

She stood with Kotfila at today's senate hearing.

"Having been ten years from the crash and nothing's changed in the last ten years when you look at laws in Massachusetts," said Carmichael. "The crash that I was in was caused by a repeat offender, and perhaps if a law like this would've been in place ten years ago, you never know, perhaps that crash could have been eliminated altogether."

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Massachusetts is one of only two states in the U.S. that doesn't require an interlock system for first-time offenders.

The senate is expected to vote on the bill later in the session.

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