PHOENIX – Two bills were passed yesterday which could make the penalties more severe for driving while under the influence of alcohol in Arizona, by adding a device to a convicted person's car that prevents it from starting if alcohol is detected on the driver's breath.

The breath sensor, called an ignition-interlocking device, would require a driver to breathe into it before he or she started the car.

The first bill would require anyone underage convicted of having "any spirituous liquor" in their body, or convicted of a DUI or an extreme or aggravated DUI, to have the device installed in their car.

It would also allow anyone convicted of a DUI to opt to have the device placed on their car instead of having their license suspended, and would restrict where and when the driver could use the car.

The second bill would require anyone convicted of their first DUI to have the device installed in their car for one year.

The current law requires anyone convicted of a second DUI within five years of their first to have the ignition-interlock device installed following a revoked driver's license for one year.

Underage drivers caught with any alcohol in their system are subject to similar consequences as anyone convicted of a DUI, which can include a jail sentence, fines and community service.

The Senate Transportation Committee passed both bills yesterday. The bill requiring underage drinkers to have the ignition-interlock device if they had any alcohol in their system, SB1240, passed unanimously in the committee.

The bill for first-time offenders to be subject to the device, SB1243, passed by a vote of 3-2.

University of Arizona Police Department spokesman Sgt. Eugene Mejia said the bills would not affect UAPD's enforcement of DUIs, but it would help to increase the liability for a person caught. He said he hoped the bills would reduce the drinking and driving problem.

"(If it passes) we should see less impaired drivers and less underage drinkers driving after they have been caught," Mejia said.

He also said the only way the bills, if they became laws, would be able to reduce repeat alcohol-related offenses would be if the devices in the car worked properly.

Senate Transportation Committee Chairman Sen. Thayer Verschoor, R-Gilbert, expressed the same concern in the committee meeting.

He said he was concerned with someone starting a car without alcohol in their system, and then drinking while they drove.

But the ignition-interlocking device, which is manufactured by five companies in Arizona, is designed so that it periodically asks the driver to breathe into it while the car is on the road, which would prevent a driver from drinking after the car started.

The sponsor of the bills, Sen. Linda Gray, R-Glendale, said the devices are designed to react to that situation. She said if the driver does not pass one of the periodic tests while the car is on the road, the lights will flash and the horn will honk.

Gray said she hoped other drivers on the road would respond by calling the police when they saw a car with its lights flashing and horn honking as it traveled down the street.

Gray said she sponsored the bills because suspending licenses of drivers convicted of these offenses was not solving the problem. She showed the committee a video that pointed out 75 percent of people who have suspended licenses keep driving because they need to get to work, among other places.

Sarah Combs, a junior majoring in English literature, said she thinks if the bills become laws they might be a little harsh for first-time offenders

"If you screw up once it's not a very reasonable thing to do ... unless it's aggravated and then it might be OK," Combs said.

In addition to raising the penalty for underage drinkers, Gray said SB1240 would help keep suspended drivers from causing more accidents.

"In lieu of a suspension, they would be required to have the ignition interlock on their vehicle, they can still drive with a restricted license that would be issued by the MVD," Gray said.

Heather Falkner, a biochemistry freshman, said she thinks the bills are more problematic than productive.

"For a Breathalyzer to be put in a person's car after one DUI is very controlling of the government because driving controls many aspects of a person's life," she said.

If both bills pass in other Senate committees, and in the Senate as a whole, they will go through the same process in the House of Representatives. If they are successful, the governor will decide whether to sign them into law.