Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank all of my colleagues for their suggestions and good advice on this piece of legislation.
This legislation came about because of a guy by the name of Ben Darchuk. Ben Darchuk was the owner of Ben's Auto Glass. He was killed by a drunk driver, a drunk driver who was also under the influence of drugs. Ben had a family. He had a business. The impact on his family, his business, and the community was immense.
It seemed to me that we needed to do something to take guys who are over twice the legal limit off the road. It seemed to me that we needed to have some teeth in a piece of legislation so that when these people hit the courts, they would not just go through that revolving door; they would actually have consequences for being over twice the legal limit.
This bill would not fix everything. There is more we need to do to address drinking and driving. There are more ideas out there on prevention and maybe on the criminalization side of things too. I am open to all of those ideas. There is no question about that.
The goal, at the end of the day, is to get these guys off the road, to get these guys out from behind the wheel of a motor vehicle. It is a very simple goal.
It heartens me, and I am happy to see, that my colleagues are going to let the bill go to committee. This is great, because the committee can do great work on this piece of legislation. It could improve it, and in fact, I hope it does improve it.
I appreciate the constructive criticism from members of the House. I appreciate the professionalism my colleagues showed toward this piece of legislation. They took partisanship out of this legislation and focused on what we are trying to accomplish here today.
I am excited and happy to see the bill go to committee. I know that the committee will do the great work that I know committees can do. We can all take comfort in knowing that when this piece of legislation passes, we will have made a step forward that will probably save even more lives. At the end of the day, that is what we want to do. We want to save lives.
I would like to thank all of my colleagues for their support on this piece of legislation.
