Annie's Law Takes Effect: What Ohio's New Drunk Driving Rules Mean for Families Who Have Lost Someone

Published April 25, 2017 · New Laws

Families who lose someone to a drunk driver often learn, in the weeks afterward, that the driver had been arrested for drunk driving before. That discovery can be almost as painful as the loss itself, because it means the danger was known.

On April 6, 2017, an Ohio law aimed at that problem took effect. Substitute House Bill 388 of the 131st General Assembly is known as Annie's Law. It is named for Annie Rooney, a 36-year-old lawyer from the Chillicothe area who, according to the Ohio House, was killed by a drunk driver on July 4, 2013. Here is what the law changes and what it means for families.

The bill

According to the Legislative Service Commission's 2016 Digest of Enactments, the General Assembly passed H.B. 388 on December 6, 2016, the governor signed it on January 4, 2017, and it became effective April 6, 2017. The bill amends a long list of sections in the Revised Code, including the OVI statute, R.C. 4511.19, the driver's license suspension laws, and the vehicular homicide statutes, R.C. 2903.06 and 2903.08, and it enacts a new R.C. 4510.022.

What changed

The Legislative Service Commission summarizes the main changes this way:

• Ignition interlocks for first offenders. A first-time OVI offender may ask the court for unlimited driving privileges during the license suspension, but only with a certified ignition interlock device, which requires a clean breath sample before the car will start. If the court grants that request, it must suspend any jail term for the OVI and may reduce the suspension by up to half. If the offender violates the conditions, the court must order the suspended jail term served.
• Stricter interlock rules. Interlock violations late in a suspension can extend it. Manufacturers must install and monitor the devices and report violations to the court and the Registrar of Motor Vehicles, and beginning in 2020, devices must include a camera.
• A longer look-back. The period for counting prior OVI and OVI-related offenses is extended from six years to ten. That matters most to repeat offenders, because prior offenses within the look-back period raise the penalties for a new one.

The longer look-back reaches the most serious cases too. In R.C. 2903.06, aggravated vehicular homicide caused by an impaired driver becomes a first degree felony with a mandatory prison term when the driver has three or more prior OVI-related convictions within the look-back period. Under H.B. 388, that period is now ten years instead of six.

What this means for families

Prevention is the point. The idea behind Annie's Law is that a driver who must blow into a device before the car starts is far less likely to drive drunk again. If interlocks keep even some repeat offenders from driving impaired, families will be spared losses like the one that gave the law its name.

Criminal history can matter in a civil case. A driver's prior OVI record is part of the criminal case, but it can also be relevant in the family's civil wrongful death case, for example in understanding what the driver knew about the risk, and whether others, such as a vehicle owner who lent a car, knew about it too. A lawyer who knows your case can look into the driver's record early.

The civil case is separate. The prosecution belongs to the state. Your family's wrongful death claim is brought by the personal representative of your loved one's estate for the exclusive benefit of the surviving spouse, children, parents, and other next of kin, under R.C. 2125.02(A)(1). The criminal outcome, whether a plea, a conviction, or something else, does not decide the civil case. Our post on Ohio's Brandon's Law explains more about how the two cases fit together.

Look for every source of recovery. Drunk drivers often carry minimum insurance or none at all. Families should look closely at their own auto policies, including uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage, and at any other parties whose conduct contributed to the crash. Our page on drunk driving deaths explains where those claims can come from, and our page on fatal car crashes covers the evidence that matters.

What a family may recover

Under R.C. 2125.02(B), a family may recover for loss of support, loss of services, loss of society (including companionship, care, guidance, and counsel), loss of prospective inheritance, and the mental anguish of the surviving spouse, children, parents, and next of kin. Those losses are real whether or not the driver goes to prison. Our page on wrongful death compensation explains them.

The deadline does not wait for the criminal case

Drunk driving prosecutions can take many months. The civil deadline runs at the same time. Under R.C. 2125.02(D)(1), a wrongful death action generally must be filed within two years after the death. Families should not wait for a sentencing before learning their rights.

If children in your home are grieving while a criminal case moves forward, our post on talking with children about a sudden death may help.