ALBANY — New York State would make it a felony to drive while intoxicated with a child in the vehicle and would require first-time convicted drunken drivers to buy a device that prevents them from driving their cars if they have been drinking, under a bill passed by the State Assembly on Tuesday.
The measure, which would significantly toughen penalties for drunken driving, could be passed by the Senate and sent to the governor this week. It would make New York the second state, after Arizona, in which drivers under the influence of alcohol could be charged with a felony if they have children as passengers.
New York would also be one of only a dozen states that force drivers convicted for the first time of drunken driving to install what is called an interlock device, which measures the alcohol content of a driver’s breath and prevents the engine from starting if it detects too high a level.
The push for harsher drunken-driving penalties follows two recent crashes in New York in which children were killed while traveling with adults who had been drinking.
In July, a Long Island woman drove the wrong way on the Taconic Parkway in Westchester County and killed eight people, including her 2-year-old daughter and three young nieces. The driver, who also died, had a blood alcohol content of 0.19 percent, more than double the 0.08 percent that qualifies as being intoxicated while driving, and had marijuana in her system.
And in October, an 11-year-old girl, Leandra Rosado, was killed after the mother of one of her friends, who has since been charged with vehicular manslaughter and driving while intoxicated, flipped her car on the Henry Hudson Parkway in Manhattan. The new law was named in honor of the girl.
Leandra’s father, Lenny Rosado, wept on Tuesday as he stood with lawmakers in the State Capitol to announce an agreement on the new stricter laws.
“Everyone who takes a drink and gets behind the wheel is going to think twice about driving whether there are children in the car,” Mr. Rosado said. “My daughter’s name and her death will make a difference.”
Under the measure, which Mr. Paterson has said he supports, drivers convicted of being drunk while carrying passengers 15 years or younger could face up to four years in prison.
Though the proposal was expected to get overwhelming support in the Legislature, some warned that the measure was not being given a thorough study.
“This bill has floated through so quickly, and I believe there are a lot of voices who would like to be heard,” said Assemblyman Vito J. Lopez, a Democrat from Brooklyn. “They will never be heard, and the reason they will never be heard is because there’s too much emotionalism.”
Courts in New York convicted 37,695 people for drunken driving last year, and across the country people who drink and drive kill about 13,000 people a year.
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