LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – A bill to increase penalties for repeat DUI offenders unanimously passed the Nevada legislature before the session ended.
The 11th-hour passage of Senate Bill 309 was a “win” for traffic and safety advocates across Clark County, working to stop the rise of DUI crashes and fatalities across the Las Vegas Valley.
In 2024 alone, 6,159 drivers were arrested for DUI, according to the Clark County County Office of Traffic Safety.
“All of you certainly have personal experiences that have been touched by this type of very terrible but preventable behavior. We have far too many deaths and injuries that result from DUI’s,” said State Senator John Steinbeck in a May 31 hearing. Steinbeck served 34 years with Clark County Fire Department.
The legislation does the following:
- Raises the mandatory minimum sentence for a second DUI offense to 20 days in jail, up from 10 days in jail
- If a repeat offender is in a DUI Specialty Court program and commits a subsequent DUI, a prosecutor can file an enhanced charge
- Lowers the threshold for a mandatory alcohol evaluation from 0.18% to 0.16%
A BAC level of 0.16% is the equivalent of nine drinks, according to Marc Schifalacqua, the senior assistant city attorney for the city of Henderson. Mandatory alcohol evaluations can help prevent repeat offenses, he said.
“We want to see if we can intervene at that point and create some individualized treatment. We’re trying to help individuals at this point not get to the second, not to get the third, and certainly not get to the fourth [DUI], and we believe this would be a good tool,” Schifalacqua said.
Another bill, Senate Bill 304, did not make it out of the legislative session in time. The proposal would allow vehicular homicide on charges on the first deadly DUI offense and toughen penalties for deadly DUI drivers.
Copyright 2025 KVVU. All rights reserved.
