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Emma Longstreet's Father Pushes for Tougher DUI Laws

David Longstreet is encouraging lawmakers to pass a bill that would require people convicted of DUI — even some first-time offenders — to install ignition interlock devices on their cars.

More than a year after his 6-year-old daughter Emma died in a car crash, David Longstreet is trying his best to stop others from suffering the way he is.

, who police say was drunk when he ran into the side of the Longstreets’ van on New Year’s Day in 2012, is being held at the Lexington County Detention Center awaiting trial. He is charged with felony DUI causing death and felony DUI causing great bodily injury. 

Longstreet, who was also injured in the wreck, had some time on his hands when he was recovering — time that he could have just let the anger eat away at him.

Instead, he started advocating against drunk driving and pushing for tougher DUI laws.

“I’ve used it as a way to channel my anger in a positive way as a father,” Longstreet said. “The pain that I deal with is unimaginable. I can’t live with (Emma), but maybe I can stop other people from suffering.”

Longstreet and other advocates are campaigning for a Senate bill sponsored by Sen. Larry Martin (R-Pickens) and Sen. Joel Lourie (D-Richland) that would require people convicted of DUI to have an ignition interlock device — a mini breathalyzer that measures a person’s blood alcohol content — installed in their cars. If the person blows a .02 or higher the car won’t start.

The bill moved out of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday and will go to a full vote in the Senate, possibly as soon as Thursday. Advocates and lawmakers who support the bill are hoping it will be implemented by 2014 if it passes the Senate and then the House this year.

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Five years ago, South Carolina lawmakers passed an act that allowed repeat DUI offenders to get their license back if they installed an interlock device on all the cars they owned after completing the required license suspension period and the Alcohol and Drug Safety Action Program.

But Longstreet and other advocates want to see the devices used more.

The proposed bill — which lawmakers are considering calling “Emma’s Law” — would no longer require people convicted of DUI to have their licenses suspended. Instead, they would be required to install an ignition interlock device on their cars.

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First-time offenders who blow less than a .12 blood alcohol content level would not be required to install the device. They could choose to have their license suspended for six months instead.

The problem with suspending licenses for DUI is that people still drive, said Sen. Bradley Hutto (D-Orangeburg). Other states that have an interlock program saw a 50 percent or more decrease in DUI deaths, Hutto said.

"We're trying to give them a legal way to drive but a safe way to drive," Hutto said.

The more times a person is convicted of DUI, the longer they would be required to keep the device on his or her car.

“From a public safety standpoint, it should be more difficult (to get back on the road),” Longstreet said. “Driving should be a privilege. It’s not a right.”

The proposed bill would require people convicted of DUI to pay about $75 to install the interlock device and about $100 dollars per month for monitoring from the S.C. Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon. 

That's a small price to pay for the pain a drunk driver causes, Longstreet said.

“I’ve lost my child forever," he said. "The medical bills are costly. This could ruin a family financially.”

Longstreet, his wife Karen, and their four children were in their minivan headed to a New Year’s Day service at Northside Baptist Church when the wreck happened. Emma, a student in the French immersion program at Midway Elementary School, was rushed to the hospital, but didn’t make it. 

She was the only girl out of four children. She loved playing with her “Littlest Pet Shop” toys, and she wanted to be a veterinarian.

“Emma was everything a father could want in a daughter,” Longstreet said.

Since their loss, the family has struggled, Longstreet said, but they’re “surviving” and “doing the best they can.”

A child-sized piano that Emma used to play still sits in the corner of the family’s dining room. It’s covered with framed photos of their beloved daughter and sister: her wearing her cheerleading uniform, her with family members, her in her school picture. A large portrait of Emma hangs on the wall above the piano.

On the dining room table, there’s a box of “Remember Emma Longstreet, Don’t Drink and Drive” bracelets that David gives out for a donation to the Emma Longstreet Memorial Fund. The money raised goes toward the campaign to pass the bill.

Longstreet hopes that getting the bill passed will be something positive that comes out of Emma’s death.

“If in any way her life can be used to help others by this law, that’s...” Longstreet trailed off. “If it can help another parent not have to deal with what we deal with...”


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