A House of Delegates committee overwhelmingly approved a bill last Friday designed to toughen Virginia's "open container" laws by granting police more leverage in prosecuting drivers whose passenger compartments contain open alcoholic beverages.
"We're trying to tighten the laws up," said Danita Bowman, legislative assistant to the bill's sponsor, Sen. Thomas Norment, R-Williamsburg.
This new bill, a lighter revision of a harsher proposal presented and passed in the Senate, creates a new "rebuttable presumption that the driver has consumed an alcoholic beverage" when an open container is found anywhere in the passenger area of the vehicle.
Currently, "it's not against the law to have an open container in a car while driving," State Police Sgt. J.D. Welch said.
Unless drivers are weaving or acting in an otherwise suspicious manner, Welch said, police do not have probable cause to pull the driver over or administer a breathalyzer test.
In its revised form, the measure managed to pass in the House Militia, Police and Public Safety commission by a vote of 20-2. Legislators say prospects now are good that the more lenient version will pass in both chambers. The entire House is expected to vote on it either today or tomorrow.
In its tougher, original wording, drivers with open beverages in their car would receive an immediate $25 fine regardless of whether the driver himself or just the passengers were drinking.
While that version of the proposed law passed the Senate, the House rejected it because delegates insisted that the presence of an open container does not necessarily mean that the driver has been drinking, said Del. William R. Janis, R-Oilville, who played a major role in the amendment process.
"There is insufficient evidence to show that other states with open container laws have fewer traffic fatalities," Janis said. "And while there may seem to be a correlation it may not be causal."
Janis supports the rewritten version because it "focuses on the driver rather than on the passenger," and as such, it will not discourage people from acting as designated drivers in situations involving open containers.
But while many legislators praised the House's compromise version, other officials said tighter legal consequences ought to be in place.
"To me it's pretty evident that if you have an open container in your vehicle you have been consuming it or you plan on consuming it," Welch said. "But I think it's a good law."
Lawmakers also were forced to consider the financial benefits of enacting such a proposal. Presently, the federal government grants $12 million annually to Virginia under the condition that the money is spent on alcohol education programs. With this new law the $12 million would come with "no strings attached," Janis said.
Despite this benefit, Janis did not think the state's current fiscal crisis was enough to pressure lawmakers into supporting the bill.
"I think it's apples and oranges," he said.
The Senate's steady support for the earlier measure has instilled confidence in the bill's supporters.
"I would anticipate the compromise passing in the House, then it's a question of whether or not the Senate accepts the amendments," said Jeff Ryer, a spokesman for Del. H. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, a member of the approving committee. "With these changes, I think it will be supported"
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