By JIM BARON

PROVIDENCE — Lincoln Rep. Rene Menard wants to see drivers who fail or refuse a Breathalyzer test have their licenses suspended immediately, before their case goes to trial.

Resurrecting a pair of bills that died last year in the House Judiciary Committee, Menard would give bail commissioners the authority to immediately suspend the license of a driver who refused to take a breath test for alcohol. Currently, only judges of the District Court and Traffic Tribunal have that power.
The other bill would mandate that bail commissioners and judges of the District Court or Traffic Tribunal immediately suspend the license of a person charged with driving under the influence and would require the licenses be surrendered within five days of the suspension.
“I’m just trying to expedite the process of getting these people off the road,” Menard said Friday. “If you refuse a Breathalyzer or if you fail the test, you should have your privilege to drive taken away.”
Asked whether his proposal provides sufficient due process, he said, “If you refuse it, that is an admission of guilt in my opinion,” because the act of refusing a Breathalyzer is against the law.
“Law enforcement doesn’t give Breathalyzers because they feel like it,” Menard said. “There are signs that they look for” that indicate a driver is intoxicated.
Because there is no provision in Rhode Island law for suspending the license of a drunken driver before a criminal trial, it can take weeks or even months to suspend a license, the lawmaker explained. He said the delay between arrest and adjudication in drunk driving cases in Rhode Island is about 14 days, saying that the drivers should not be allowed to get back behind the wheel in the meantime.
“Drunken drivers are a very serious threat to community safety,” Menard said in a written statement. “People who would be so reckless as to drink and drive are a danger not only to themselves but also to other drivers.
“We cannot give them additional opportunities to cause harm,” said Rep. Menard. “Driving is a privilege, not a right and if it is abused it should be rescinded immediately.”
He noted that 40 other states already mandate immediate license suspensions.  
Menard first introduced the legislation last year, in the wake of a long-term study released in July 2007 on the effects of drivers’ license suspension in the United States. The study concluded that immediate loss of driving privileges helps to deter repeat drunken driving offenses. It also determined that the length of time it takes to punish an accused driver is a more likely deterrent to similar behavior than the severity of the punishment.
Having lined up support for the measures from the attorney general’s office and State Police, Menard said, “I want to give them another shot” at becoming law.
He said the Senate passed its own version of the same bill last year, but that too died in the House Judiciary Committee. For years, MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and other opponents of drunk driving have complained that the House panel refuses to allow such legislation to pass.
That is the committee, however, where both bills will be heard again this year.
Co-sponsors of the measures include Lincoln Rep. Mary Ann Shallcross Smith, Woonsocket Rep. Lisa Baldelli-Hunt, East Providence Rep. Roberto DaSilva and Smithfield Rep. Thomas Winfield.