Bill proposed to keep repeat DUI offenders off roads

State Representative Kelly Flood, D-Lexington, says the bill she is proposing would help law enforcement better identify repeated DUI offenders.

The bill hopes to extend Kentucky’s look-back period of previous DUI offenses from five to 10 years. Meaning, a fourth DUI in a decade would be a felony and come with one to five years in jail.

Mark Hinkel was riding in the Horsey Hundred bike event in Georgetown when the sheriff’s officer says he was hit and killed by a drunk driver.

Paz Odilson Salvador was arrested and charged with murder.

Records show he has a history of alcohol-related offenses and multiple DUIs, most of them older than five years.

Flood pre-filed the bill in honor of Hinkel. She hopes it keeps repeat offenders off the streets.

“Currently alcohol-related deaths on the highway are a fifth of all related deaths and that’s why it matters to do all we can to reduce that specific figure because it’s a place where we actually have control,” said Flood.

The legislative session doesn’t start back up until January but Flood pre-filed her bill to have it on the docket early.

She says an identical bill was filled by Kentucky Senator Dennis Parrett, D-Elizabethtown, just a few days earlier in honor of a Hardin County teen who was killed by a drunk driver.