About a Bill — DUI; Prior offenses 

Getting rid of DUI violation takes longer What the new law does: Extends the “look-back” period for driving under the influence from 60 months to 84 months. The “look-back” period is the length of time that DUI convictions can be considered when charging individuals as repeat DUI offenders.
The period in which DUI convictions can be used to prosecute subsequent drinking and driving violations as repeat offenses has been extended to seven years from five years.
The change results from S1560 (Chapter 395), that passed 26-2 in the Senate, 40-2 in the House, and was signed into law by Governor Napolitano on June 28. The new law aims to teach a lesson to Arizona’s chronic drunk drivers, according to its sponsor, Sen. Jim Waring, R-7.
“You’ve already gotten one DUI,” Mr. Waring said. “Now, within seven years, you’re getting another one. I don’t know what that tells you, but it tells me that you’re a problem child and you need discipline.”
Mr. Waring said he drafted S1560 because the number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities occurring each year alarmed him; not because drunk driving affected him personally or victimized his friends or family.
“I’m not so naïve as to think that we’re going to stop all fatalities, but maybe we can chip away at the 500 or so that happen each year and make it 450,” he said. “That would be my hope.”
In Arizona there have been an average of 472 alcohol-related traffic fatalities in each of the last five years, with a five-year peak of 492 in 2005 and a low of 435 in 2004, according to annual fact sheets published by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
On average, alcohol-related traffic fatalities represented just over 42 percent of the state’s traffic deaths between 2001 and 2005, matching national trends for the same period.
“That’s 500 dead mothers and fathers out there, or 500 people with potentially dead kids that we’re talking about,” he added. “I think that’s just horrible.”
In addition to extending the “look-back” period, Mr. Waring’s bill defines “aggravated DUI” as a third or subsequent DUI conviction that occurs within 84 months, not 60 months, of prior DUI offenses.
It took effect on the general effective date and requires drunk drivers to perform 30 hours of community restitution for repeat violations that occur within those 84 months, on top of harsher penalties that already accompany repeat DUI convictions.
Mr. Waring said even if his bill can’t scare drunk drivers straight, it should make it easier to keep them off Arizona’s roadways.