Vehicles: driver's license: suspension.

(1) Existing law that will become operative on July 1, 2010, authorizes a person who has been convicted of specified driving under the influence (DUI) offenses and who has had his or her driving privilege suspended or revoked to apply to the Department of Motor Vehicles for a restricted driver's license, if certain conditions, including that the person has installed an ignition interlock device, are met. Existing law requires the department to immediately suspend the driving privilege of a person if the person was driving a motor vehicle with 0.08% or more of alcohol in his or her blood, the person was under 21 years of age and had a blood-alcohol level of 0.01% or more, the person was driving a vehicle that requires a commercial driver's license and had 0.04% or more of alcohol in his or her blood, or the person was driving a motor vehicle when he or she was on probation for a specified DUI violation and had 0.01% or more of alcohol in his or her blood. If the person has been convicted of one or more separate DUI violations, has been administratively determined to have refused chemical testing, or has been administratively determined to have been driving with an excessive concentration of alcohol on a separate occasion, which offense or occasion occurred within 10 years of the occasion in question, existing law requires the period of suspension to be one year. This bill would require the one-year suspension to terminate if the person has been convicted of a violation arising out of the same occurrence and the person meets specified conditions, including that he or she is otherwise eligible for a restricted driver's license and installs an ignition interlock device for purposes of that restricted driver's license. (2) Existing law requires the Department of Motor Vehicle's, before July 1, 2010, to issue a restricted driver's license to a person restricting the person's driving privilege to the hours necessary for driving to and from the place of employment, driving during the course of employment, and driving to and from activities required in the drug and alcohol treatment program if the person completes not less than 12 months of the suspension period imposed pursuant to the punishment for the second conviction of driving under the influence where the conviction is related to driving under the influence of alcohol beverage only and satisfies other requirements. Existing law requires the department, on or after July 1, 2010, to issue the restricted driver's license if the person completes not less than 90 days of the suspension period and satisfies other requirements. This bill would instead require the department, on or after July 1, 2010, to issue a restricted driver's license only if the person has completed not less than 12 months of the suspension period. (3) This bill would declare that it is to take effect immediately as an urgency statute.