RSS 2.0 FeedAugust 19, 2010, Cover Stories, Bellmore Life
New York State’s Leandra’s Law now a ‘lock’
Safety in the streets is the number-one goal.
In an often-impassioned press conference last week state Senator Charles J. Fuschillo Jr. (below) and state Assemblyman Harvey Weisenberg announced along with Governor David Paterson that a key provision of Leandra’s Law would begin this week to make streets safer for everyone from the dangers of drunk driving.
The new provision makes it a requirement for anyone convicted of a misdemeanor or felony charge of driving while intoxicated to install an ignition interlocking device in their car and blow into it before driving. The device will detect any alcohol in the breath and shut the car down if it detects any level of alcohol, preventing the car from being used. It also alerts the police about the driver’s alcohol level.
The first key provision of the new law took discretion away from judges to determine a sentence they saw fit. Families praised In opening remarks Governor Paterson, a Democrat, praised both Senator Fuschillo, Republican of Merrick, and Assemblyman Weisenberg, Democrat from Long Beach, for their determination in getting the legislation passed. He also praised two Long Island families, the Flynns and the Rosados, for putting personal feelings aside to campaign for drunk driving laws.
The Flynn family lost their daughter Katie Flynn when a repeat drunk driver driving the wrong way on Meadowbrook Parkway crashed into a limosine carrying the family to a wedding reception in Long Beach. The drunk driver is now serving a sentence of 18-years-to-life for murder, thanks to new laws enacted in 2007 by the state Legislature after the crash, including aggravated vehicular assault and aggravated vehicular homicide.
The Rosado family lost their daughter Leandra, whom the law is named after, when an SUV she was in, driven by a drunk driver, crashed. The driver of the SUV has recently pleaded guilty to manslaughter Leandra’s Law, enacted in November, 2009, and also known as the Child Passenger Protection Act, makes it a felony for drivers to knowingly drive with children in the car when or if they drink. “With this new provision people who drive on the roads should be able to feel that the person in front of them, and the person in back of them, are all safe drivers,” Governor Paterson said.
An epidemic that had to be stopped In remarks tinged with passion, Senator Fuschillo said drunk drivers have maimed and ruined families, and that drunk driving had become an epidemic in the state that had to be stopped because it was killing so many innocent people. He praised Assemblyman Weisenberg, saying that without his help in the state Assembly the law wouldn’t have been possible.
Assemblyman Weisenberg said in his remarks, with equal passion, that “I had to fight everyone in my own House [of the state Legislature], and I had to give up my own chair” to get this bill passed. He would later be reinstalled into an administrative position. Describing a difficult moment in the evolution of the law, Senator Fuschillo told those in attendance, some holding back tears, that once the Legislature agreed to reduce the level of alcohol in the blood to .08%, “We thought we’d see a decrease in drunk driving crashes, but we didn’t. “We then realized we had to take away a judge’s discretion” in assigning punishment, he continued. He told Bellmore Life afterward that taking away discretion from judges means that a prescribed punishment cannot be watered down by the judge. “We changed a line in the law from ‘may impose a sentence’ to ‘shall impose a sentence.’ ”
Mr. Weisenberg brought his personal experiences to play in fighting for Leandra’s Law. He said he was once a police officer who responded to fatal accidents caused by drunk drivers and witnessed the human carnage.
“There is pain and sorrow in these families, and they are clearly the heros of this law because they came forward,” he added. Now, with the law enacted, “We can share in the results of preventing tragedies to other families.” “I love both Senator Fuschillo and Assemblyman Weisenberg” for this law, said Ina Cohen of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). She lost her daughter Jody to a repeat drunk driver who never spent a day in jail. “Had Leandra’s Law been in effect, Jody would be here with me now,” she said. “Now we can say: ‘Too bad, your honor, it’s out of your hands.’ ”
A nail in the coffin?
Is this the nail in the coffin for drivers who drive drunk with impunity? “No,” maintained Tom McCoy, affiliate executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. He said that society now has to get “into the minds of those drinkers who have not hurt anyone yet before they get in a car drunk and maim or kill someone.” That is where the danger now lies, he said. Lenny Rosado, father of Leandra, said he will next go to Washington, D.C. on September 20 to see about taking the law national. Nine states currently have similar laws, and Assemblyman Weisenberg said statistics show that the law has led to the arrest of over 300 people attempting to drive while drunk who no longer could because of the ignition interlocking device. “How many people would have been killed otherwise?” he asked.
