HELENA — Montana Legislators are pushing for changes to DUI laws – laws that Rep. Braxton Mitchell, R-Columbia Falls, calls a national embarrassment.
Mitchell is carrying House Bill 267, known as “Bobby’s Law” in honor of 21-year-old Bobby Dewbre, who was killed by a drunk driver in Columbia Falls in 2023. The driver served the maximum 18-month sentence.
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The bill advanced on a 92-8 vote in the House on Thursday.
Under HB 267, if a driver kills someone while registering a blood alcohol content of 0.16 or higher, twice the legal limit, they would be charged with aggravated vehicular homicide and serve no less than three years in prison.
The bill’s emotional committee hearing late last month brought in about 80 proponents, many sharing personal stories of loss. There were no opponents.
Dewbre’s father, Robert Dewbre, spoke in support of the bill. He shared stories of how drunk driving was normalized in his youth and about his own experiences driving under the influence until he quit drinking completely.
“I cannot bring Bob back,” Dewbre said. “But Bobby’s law would mitigate these deaths. Hopefully by providing an effective deterrent. But at the very least by taking drivers unwilling to change off the streets.”
In a House floor hearing Thursday, Rep. Tracy Sharp, R-Polson, rose in support.
“Now that I'm in this great hall as an elected member, I can't go back to them and tell those constituents, ‘You know what, when we had a chance to consider this, we decided the status quo was just fine,’” Sharp said.
One of the few concerns about the bill came from Rep. Tom France, D-Missoula. He said he was reluctant to oppose but saw issues with the one-size-fits-all approach.
“ The problem with this bill is it mandates certain outcomes and it does not give county prosecutors the discretion to recognize that every tragedy is a unique tragedy and that in some instances a mandatory sentence by the judge may not be the appropriate punishment,” France said.
The bill passed with wide bipartisan support and now heads to the House Appropriations Committee for review. Missoula Democrat Zooey Zephyr spoke in support of the bill, which she said was unusual for these types of bills. Zephyr said she could not ignore the obvious importance the issue has to Montanans.
Last year, an analysis from Forbes ranked Montana No. 1 in the nationfor drunk driving deaths.
Clayton Murphy is a reporter with the UM Legislative News Service, a partnership of the University of Montana School of Journalism, the Montana Broadcasters Association, the Montana Newspaper Association and the Greater Montana Foundation. Murphy can be reached at clayton.murphy@umconnect.umt.edu.
