DUI devices considered for all offenders

TAMPA (FOX 13) - One strike and you're out: The state of Florida is considering a bill that would require anyone charged with DUI to install an ignition interlock device before they start their car again.

It would be a major expansion of the state's interlock program.

Jackie Powell, a DUI victim and presenter for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, was injured in a 2001 crash.

"I (still) can't step up on a curb or anything," she said. "This is as high as I will be able to raise my hands the rest of my life."

They don't go above her shoulders.

"We tell them what has happened to us and we tell them please don't do this again."

She makes monthly presentations to DUI convicts at the Hillsborough County Jail, where she tells of the broken neck she sustained.

She says a bill by Jacksonville state Rep. Cord Byrd, to require interlock devices on every DUI convict's car, is an even better punishment than a license suspension.

Now, the devices are only for those who blow 0.15 or who offend a second time.

"It took us two years to go to trial, and about 30 days before we went to trial. She did go out then and have one more DUI," she said of the suspect in her case.

Since the state started requiring devices for repeat offenders in 2008, MADD says the devices have blocked 50,000 attempts to drive drunk.

Hillsborough deputies back the change.

"It is really astonishing the amount of people out there who have multiple DUIs," said Det. Larry McKinnon, a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office public information officer.

2015 saw a 15-percent increase in the number of Floridians who died in drunk driving crashes: 797 -- that's more than two a day.

"As long as I have a voice, as long as I can get out of bed everyday, I will keep speaking to people, encourage them to make the right choice," said Powell.

It took four years of rehab to walk again.

"God, why didn't he take that steering wheel of hers, my God is a good God, don't get me wrong, why didn't he take that steering wheel and stop her somewhere else?"

Florida would become the 29th state to require interlock devices for any drunk driver.

Drivers have to pay the cost of installation.