Here’s What 10 Colorado DUIs Gets You

It can be hard to take things like drinking and driving seriously if the only penalty handed out is a traffic citation. This man, for example, figured that his 10^th DUI in Colorado would just earn him a summons for a future court date. He already knew the DUI drill – or so he thought.

Last year, Colorado upped the DUI ante to officially put the brakes on repeat offenders. Similar to the “three strike” DUI felony statutes in many other states, Colorado adopted a “fourth strike” policy for drunk drivers. That gives a DUI offender a lot to consider, especially with the long-term limits put on personal freedom with any felony conviction.

For example, a felony DUI in Colorado means the offender could:

• Be fined up to $500,000.
• Spend at least 2 years in prison, with a six-year maximum sentence.
• Be designated a “habitual traffic offender” with a four-year ignition interlock requirement.
• Lose civil rights like gun ownership, voting, traveling abroad, etc.

Colorado isn’t the only state that has had such a liberal policy toward drunk drivers. Wisconsin, for example, is looking at much stricter consequences for drunk drivers than ever before, including an ignition interlock requirement for first-time offenders. Colorado has had an all-offender ignition interlock policy in place for a while, making it much more difficult to accrue subsequent drunk driving convictions. Obviously, if the man figured his 10^th DUI was no big deal, he ignored his ignition interlock requirement, too.

Keeping the roads safe is a vital part of legislature, even if it removes the “right” to drive under the influence of alcohol. After a while, and a few convictions in Colorado, you could lose a lot more than your “right” to drive, even with an interlock. You could be looking at a felony that changes your life forever.