ABC10
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Colin Campbell’s eyes light up when thinking about his two kids, Ruby and Hart, both of whom had magnetic personalities and personified kindness.
“Ruby was an amazing artist, she was a character…I call her a proud lesbian social justice warrior,” Campbell said. “...Hart was this amazing clown, he made everybody laugh…he was an amazing superstar of a performer, who just had a crowd of people in his thrall.”
Those were the things Campbell remembers most about his kids, whom he lost in a car accident in 2019. Campbell said they were on a family vacation to Joshua Tree when a drunk driver T-boned them at 90 mph.
“When I came to, I looked in the backseat and Ruby and Hart’s eyes are wide open, their pupils are pitch black, and they're both dead,” Campbell said.
Wanting to prevent anyone from being in the same position he found himself in, the father traveled from Los Angeles to Sacramento to advocate for Assembly Bill 366.
The bill would establish a requirement to install ignition interlock devices (IIDs) in cars for repeat DUI offenders in perpetuity, and it would also mandate the installation of IIDs for first-time offenders.
A 2025 UCLA study found installing an IID for a year was an effective deterrent to driving under the influence, comparable to a 20% increase in police enforcement and higher fines.
Advocates have tried to pass this requirement for 17 years. Last year, a similar bill authored by Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris died in committee, but she believes this will finally be the year the bill passes, given the growing support.
“We know that drunk driving is an epidemic across the nation, and tragically, California is the epicenter for the epidemic,” said Petrie-Norris.
According to the California Office of Traffic Safety, 1,479 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes in 2022, making up one-third of all traffic deaths in the state.
“These aren’t just statistics, these are our brothers, and our sisters, our sons and our daughters,” Petrie-Norris said.
The California Public Defenders Association (CPDA) opposes the bill for both eliminating judicial discretion for first-time offenders and putting a disproportionate burden on low-income Californians to front the costs.
“Not only does AB 366 balloon and compound the cost of the already expensive administrative program during a budget deficit, it also exacerbates the financial harm imposed on low-income individuals and their families,” said Lesli Caldwell-Houston with the CPDA at an Assembly Public Safety Committee meeting.
As for costs, Petrie-Norris points out programs will be available to low-income Californians, reducing the cost to about 30 cents a day for the devices.
And for people like Campbell, the benefits far outweigh the costs of the devices, helping to keep people safe on the roads as well as keeping someone like the person who struck his car in 2019 out of prison.
“I would like [the opposition] to go into prison and ask these people, well, if there were interlock devices, would you have wanted that or not? Would you have liked to spend 12 years behind bars or would you have minded that inconvenience of blowing into a tube to make sure you’re not going to kill someone on the road?” Campbell said.
AB 366 passed unanimously out of the Assembly Public Committee Tuesday; it will now go to the Assembly Appropriations Committee.