Lawmaker targets repeat drunk drivers as part of larger push to fix problems exposed by CalMatters

A coalition of lawmakers is planning a series of bills this Legislative session to fundamentally revamp how California handles dangerous drivers, Assemblymember Nick Schultz of Burbank said this week.

Schultz, a Democrat who chairs the Assembly’s Public Safety Committee, released the details of his opening effort on Monday, proposing a law that would increase penalties for repeat drunk drivers. 

He said the bill is intended to be the “tip of the spear” in a larger movement to address issues exposed by CalMatters’ License to Kill series. The investigation showed how, as roadway deaths spike, the state of California has routinely allowed dangerous drivers with horrifying histories to continue to operate on our roads.

“California has been behind the eight ball, quite frankly, compared to many other states in the country,” Schultz said in an interview. “We have got to do a better job.”

His new bill would make it easier for prosecutors to charge repeat DUI offenders with a felony, punish some of those drivers with longer license suspensions and lengthen their usage of ignition interlock devices, which are in-car breathalyzers that a driver must blow into for a vehicle to start. 

The proposed changes come after alcohol-related roadway deaths in California surged more than 50% over the past decade — an increase twice as steep as the rest of the country, federal estimates show. More than 1,300 people die each year statewide in drunken collisions.  CalMatters’ investigation revealed the state has some of the weakest DUI laws in the country and fails to enforce many of the statutes that are on the books.

Here, for example, a driver generally can’t be charged with a felony until their fourth DUI in 10 years. Schultz’s bill would let prosecutors charge a felony for a third DUI — a “paradigm shift” for sentencing, he said, that would bring California more in line with other states like Oregon, where he used to work as a prosecutor handling DUI cases.

The bill would also require any driver who gets a fifth DUI conviction within 10 years to have their license revoked for five years, and to install an in-car breathalyzer for four years. 

Schultz said the measure, and those expected to follow, would give the state a better system to identify dangerous drivers and intervene before it’s too late. His goal is to “bridge the gap” between the justice system and state regulators at the DMV. The effort was spurred, he added, by a combination of victims’ families calling for change and CalMatters’ reporting. 

“It’s grassroots, and I’m hearing about it in my community,” Schultz said. “The Capitol community is paying more attention to it because of the investigative reporting, and I think that’s a good thing.”

Other lawmakers are researching ways to keep reckless drivers off the road for longer, increase penalties for hit-and-runs and deadly DUIs, further expand breathalyzer requirements and modify the DMV’s point system. That system is set up to identify short-term clusters of dangerous behavior behind the wheel as opposed to long-term patterns. As a result, some drivers with egregious records are able to stay on the road.

Separately, Republican Assemblymember Tom Lackey of Palmdale plans on bringing at least three DUI reform bills in the upcoming session, according to his office.

Details of other road safety bills are expected to be announced in the coming weeks, staffers say, and will include a push for more DMV funding to address cost concerns. California was once a leader on these issues, but elected officials have proven reluctant to take on traffic deaths at a time when they’ve prioritized criminal justice reform and economic inequality, and the DMV has said it doesn’t have the resources to implement changes. 

The pendulum may be swinging. After recent high-profile crashes, officials and advocates across the state are amplifying calls to address dangerous driving. 

Last spring, high school tennis standout Braun Levi was killed by someone prosecutors say was a repeat drunk driver, just months after his family’s home burned in the Palisades fire. 

District Attorney Nathan Hochman last month filed murder charges against the driver and held a press conference calling on the Legislature, governor, DMV and judges to do more to avoid similar deaths.

Hochman highlighted many of the findings from the CalMatters series, noting that vehicular manslaughter isn’t considered a violent felony in California and referencing the fact that it’s one of the few states that don’t require first-time DUI offenders to install in-car breathalyzers.

“What other issue do we have where we actually have preventable deaths that we absolutely know will occur if we just keep doing the status quo?” Hochman said.

State Sen. Bob Archuleta, a Democrat from Norwalk and member of the Senate Transportation Committee, joined Hochman at the podium. Archuleta’s granddaughter was killed by an alleged drunk driver in 2024, and he has said he intends to put forward legislation to increase consequences for fatal DUI crashes.

“My colleagues in the state Senate, my colleagues in the Assembly, please work with us,” Archuleta said. “Because we’ve got to do some things that are gonna shake the trees a little bit.”

Braun’s mother, Jennifer Levi, made an appeal for more action at the press conference.

“California’s current DUI laws are broken and weak and fail to protect families like ours, and it’s devastating,” Levi said. “His death haunts my every breath, my every day.”

She said she’s committed to advancing legislation to restructure DUI sentencing and increase deterrence and punishment. Archuleta’s office said it’s finishing a draft of such a bill.

“This is not a political issue, this is a human issue,” Levi said. “I guarantee if any of you had to identify the body of your child or loved one in the manner that my husband and I did a few months ago, you would not be silent.”