24/7 Sobriety Act Kicks Off

Tools

By MacLeod Hageman

Story Published: Oct 3, 2011 at 5:40 PM MDT

Story Updated: Oct 4, 2011 at 1:19 PM MDT

BILLINGS - Yellowstone County officials hope to have a major impact on drunk driving now that the 24/7 Sobriety Act has gone into effect in the county. The program will hold repeat D.U.I. offenders accountable for their actions.

Montana has one of the highest ranking drunk driving death rates in the nation. Now, in Yellowstone County, officials are hopeful the the 24/7 Sobriety Act will give them the tools they need to fight back. "It curbs the behavior, because it's instant accountability. That's why it's important to have the procedure implemented properly, and to have all of these courts and law agencies buy into this, because there is an immediate consequence for failing to obey court and sentencing order," Yellowstone County Attorney; Scott Twito said.

The program went into effect October 1st, and according to its guidelines second or subsequent D.U.I. offenders will have to submit to two breath tests every day until sentencing. "It falls to the Sheriff's Office to implement the program; to have the test coordinators in place and to be able to do this," Twito said.

Six Montana counties adopted the program, and officials expected testing to kick off by the end of the first week. "Right now we're just waiting on our equipment to be upgraded with the current software, and we'll probably get that installed sometime early this week. We will go live and start doing the testing on Friday," Yellowstone County Sheriff; Mike Linder said.

Sheriff Linder said the program will be beneficial to everyone while it will hold offenders accountable. "I think it'll be a great program within Yellowstone County. If you can keep the drunk drivers off the road, and it saves one life it will make it worth while," Sheriff Linder said.

Sheriff Linder said offenders will have to report to the county jail in the morning and at night for breath tests until a permanent establishment is in place. "We may need to find a second location because of traffic and those types of issues," Linder said.

The program began as a pilot in 2010 in Lewis and Clark County, and officials said they've seen a dramatic decline in D.U.I. cases. The program will cost offenders about $2.00 per test, and officials expect more counties to come on board after the program is in place.

You have indicated this comment should be removed.

Close

The comment has been submitted for review. Thank you .

kma said on Monday, Oct 3 at 6:02 PM

I got a better idea how about we take away their vehicle and if they do get it back make them put a flouresent orange tag on their vehicles so that way the police can see they are convicted drunk drivers

Add a comment

Name:

Comment: 1000 Characters Left

KULR-8 News, Sports, Weather and its affiliated companies are not responsible for the content of comments posted or for anything arising out of use of the above comments or other interaction among the users. We reserve the right to screen, refuse to post, remove or edit user-generated content at any time and for any or no reason in our absolute and sole discretion without prior notice, although we have no duty to do so or to monitor any Public Forum.

Your Weather Authority

Icon
Current Temp 84.0 °F
Partly Cloudy
Wind : Variable at
6.9 mph
Humidity : 15 %
Pressure : 29.75 in
More Weather

Party America Sky Cam

More Weather

On Demand

YouNews

This content requires the latest Adobe Flash Player and a browser with JavaScript enabled. Click here for a free download of the latest Adobe Flash Player.