California Lawmakers Unveil Sweeping 10-Bill Crackdown on DUI and Vehicular Homicide

Overview

• Backers call it the state’s largest anti-DUI effort in more than two decades, with victims’ families and police leaders urging swift action.
• The package would reclassify vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence as a violent felony and require ignition interlock devices for all DUI offenders.
• Other measures target administrative gaps by closing a DMV point loophole for diversion cases, raising points for fatal crashes, and extending license revocations for repeat offenders.
• Proposals would also let prosecutors pursue felony charges on second or third DUIs, restrict alcohol purchases for serious or repeat DUI offenders, and expand police DUI training.
• Sponsors signaled more bills could be filed before next week’s deadline and requested audits of DMV records and traffic-safety spending, even as they acknowledged prior DMV tech and funding hurdles that derailed a similar plan last year.