(Billings, MT – YPR) – Montana joined a handful of states in the crackdown on drunk driving in 2011. Federal and state officials have launched a drinking and driving awareness campaign during the holiday season.

Impaired drivers pulled over by law enforcement in several states better be prepared to give blood – even if they refuse to submit to a breath test. Several states, including  Montana, Florida, Texas, and Illinois, now have laws that allow law enforcement officials to seek a telephonic search warrant from a judge to draw the blood of a person suspected of driving under the influence.

Montana passed its law – Senate Bill 42 – during the 2011 legislative session.

“The problem with repeat DUI driver in this state is they become skilled in their craft,” says Deputy Yellowstone County Attorney Rod Souza. ”And they quickly realize that the way to get out of a DUI is to withhold evidence. And so they refuse [the] sobriety test and they refuse that ever important breath test. And so they deprive the investigator and the prosecution of important evidence. But that is no more.”

Souza credits the 2011 Montana Legislature as the most successful session ever when it comes to combating DUI.

He adds it comes from the public being fed up. Montana has had one of the highest alcohol-related fatality rates in the nation per vehicle mile traveled.

Souza says, “Montanans are recognizing that DUI is not just a traffic ticket. It’s not just an addiction. It’s a crime. And it’s a crime that negatively impacts our entire community.”

“I want my son back. And I can’t get him back,” Rebecca Sturdevant told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in February.  Sturdevant, who spoke on behalf of the group Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, lost her son, Montana Highway Patrol (MHP) Trooper Evan Schneider, while he was on duty in August 2008.

Another MHP Trooper Mike Haynes was killed in a head-on collision–also while on duty–in March 2009.  Haynes was struck by a drunk driver headed the wrong way on US Highway 93.

The Yellowstone County DUI Task force brought Haynes’ patrol car to the courthouse on December 15, 2011 as a reminder of the consequences of drinking and driving.

“We should always look toward those two men and look at that car as a sobering reminder that DUI truly affects all of us,” says Souza. “Anyone. Anytime. Anywhere. And that’s really the problem with DUI it can tragically change anyone’s life n the blink of an eye.”

Another key bill from the 2011 Montana Legislature was the creation of what is known as the 24/7 program. House Bill  106 is based on a program developed in South Dakota. In Montana, judges can sentence individuals convicted of a second or subsequent DUI to submit to a breath test twice a day, every day of the sentence.

These were just two of the successful laws passed by Montana lawmakers. There were some opponents. A few legislators worried about stepping on the rights of individuals and the impact on businesses, including comments from state Representative Alan Hale (R-Basin) on the House Floor in March.

“Mr. Chairman. I have to rise in opposition to this along with all the other DUI laws,” Hale says. “These DUI laws are not doing our small businesses in our state any good. At all. They are destroying them. They are destroying a way of life that has been in Montana for years and years. These taverns and bars in these smaller communities connect people together. They’re the center of the community. And I’ll guarantee you there’s only two ways to get there. Either you hitchhike or you drive.  And I promise you they’re not going to hitchhike. Thank you.”

Hale and his wife own the Silver Saddle Bar and Café in Basin, MT, a small community south of Helena just off of I-15.

Nine of Montana’s 56 counties have launched 24/7 in October. Yellowstone County Attorney Scott Twito supports the program because the state’s largest county also had the state’s most DUI-related crashes in 2009.

Twito thinks both the telephonic search warrants to draw blood and 24/7 will help reverse that statistic.

“We have the evidence against you. We have the program in place to try to curb your dangerous behavior,” Twito says. “We’re going to move forward and hopefully take you off the roadway.”

State Attorney General Steve Bullock says its still too early to tell if both of those new laws will ultimately tackle Montana’s DUI problem. “This isn’t something that will change our whole environment and change attitudes. It went into effect October 1^st. The world won’t change by November 1^st. But what this will do is make sure those offenders will be treated as individuals. We’re dealing with them as individuals to try to address the problems that they have.”

Bullock says, however, law enforcement officials tell his office they are starting to see progress.

“We know in Billings last year 40% of the DUI suspects pulled over refused to take a breath test. We know statewide in 2010, roughly 3000 people refused,” Bullock says. He says that seems to be changing with the new laws. “So far this year, Montana is down 13.6% in the number of alcohol-related crashes and about 16% in alcohol-related fatalities compared to last year.” Bullock says those numbers can still change since the year is not yet over.

Besides legislation, Montana has also launched a public service campaign as part of a multi-pronged approach to address driving under the influence.

This includes a television ad titled “Sober Friend” that features a riderless horse waking up to a bar to pick up a man.

In Montana, a person can’t be charged with DUI if they are on a horse, bicycle or in a wheelchair. (MCA 61-8-401 references the definition of vehicle in MCA 61-1-101 (90)(a) as “a device in, upon, or by which any person or property may be transported or drawn upon a public highway, except devices moved by animal power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks.”