Starting on Oct. 31, there will be two kinds of drunken drivers in Michigan: standard and “super.”

Standard are those with blood alcohol content of 0.08 to 0.16 percent. The super drunk, a new category under state law, are first-time offenders who test at 0.17 or above.

The designation confers no special powers, just super-high penalties and super-stiff fees.

Fines and other costs could top $8,000, some defense attorneys predict. Alcohol treatment is mandatory, possible jail time is doubled, and driving is forbidden for 45 days.

The penalties include another first for Michigan: a requirement to install an in-car breathalyzer.

To resume driving after 45 days, first-time super-drunk offenders must buy an ignition interlock, which works by testing a driver’s breath and allows the car to run only if the driver is sober.

The change is part of an effort to toughen drunken driving penalties, by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Michigan joined more than 40 states when the Legislature passed the standards with virtually no opposition at the end of 2008.

The technical term is “high blood alcohol content enhanced penalty law.”

“We don’t really like calling it the super drunk law,“ said Anne Readett, spokeswoman for the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning.

Critics of the law, including defense lawyers, question its effectiveness.

Advocates call the measure positive but not enough — “a disappointing step in the right direction,” said Michigan MADD’s executive director, Homer Smith.

For example, state lawmakers set the blood-alcohol standard at 0.17 percent, bucking a trend toward tougher 0.15 thresholds preferred by MADD. And at least a dozen states require interlock devices for all convicted drunken drivers.

“The Legislature had an opportunity to do something that would significantly deter drunk driving,” Smith said. “Unfortunately, they chose to do less than the optimum.”

Michigan still considers 0.08 percent to be legally drunk, and the new law does not affect repeat offenders or people who face a felony for causing death, injury or damage.

About one-third of Michigan drivers whom police suspect of driving drunk test at the enhanced penalty levels.

Interlocks have gained in effectiveness and acceptance since 2007, when federal traffic safety officials began a campaign urging judges to require the devices.

A device costs the driver about $100 a month to maintain. Other costs to violators come from state driver responsibility fees and attorney fees.

First-time offenders who meet the super-drunk standard are looking at $8,000 to $10,000, according to defense attorney Gerald Lykins.

He is unconvinced the law will be effective.

“I’m not sure that penalizing someone who blows a 0.17 rather than 0.14 will prevent people from drunk driving,“ he said. “The driver responsibility fee was supposed to reduce bad driving, but that hasn’t worked.“

MADD counters that enhanced penalties are working in other states. New Mexico, for instance, has had a 20 percent reduction in alcohol-related crashes since its law was passed in 2005.

Kalamazoo County Assistant Prosecutor Aubrey Sharp said the new penalties treat offenses in proportion to one another.

“You have a person with a 0.09 blood alcohol level who is punished the same as someone with a 0.32,“ Sharp said.

Others take a wait-and-see approach. Kent County Prosecutor William Forsyth said penalties already are harsh.

“It’s still drunk driving and I don’t see how it’s really going to change,“ he said.

Grand Rapids Assistant City Attorney Mike Tomich calls the law “a useful tool for public safety.“ But he said he is not certain the provisions will change behavior overall.

Grand Rapids District Court Judge Jeanine LaVille, who oversees sobriety court, said the added mandatory penalties take more discretion from judges, who have crafted sentences based on individual needs and offenses.

“We’re already doing what the Legislature suggests,“ LaVille said.

Attorney Lykins said if the state wants to prevent drunken driving, lawmakers could consider taking the law to its logical conclusion.

“We could demand that car manufactures have interlock devices as standard equipment,” Lykins said, “just like seatbelts.”

Driver with restored privileges takes initiative to get interlock

DORR — When Pamela Lodenstein got her second drunken driving arrest in four years, she decided to change.

“It was time to grow up,” said the Dorr native, a 28-year-old working mom with a 2-year-old daughter. “I’ve been in enough trouble.”

She said she has not had a drink in two years. To regain her suspended driving privileges, she agreed to have an ignition interlock put in her car four months ago.

Lodenstein said before she can start up, she has to blow into the device. Less than a minute after starting, she has to blow into it again. It requires re-testing at 20-minute intervals.

“You have to pay attention to your driving while you blow into it,” Lodenstein said.

She said it cost her about $100, plus a $100 monthly maintenance fee.

If any alcohol registers, the car’s data system stores the information, and driving can once again be restricted.

Lodenstein said the device did register a couple false positives, which must be documented and explained, such as when she sprayed an alcohol-based body spray in the car.

She went 20 months without driving after her second conviction, in October 2008, and relied on relatives and friends to get to her job cleaning apartments.

Lodenstein said she was willing to get the interlock installed to help ensure her sobriety, as well as to prove she is committed to driving responsibly.

With legal fees, fines and costs, she estimates she spent $12,000 to get her driving privileges back.

“Is it worth having the device? I think it is, yes,” she said.

“You’ve got to take it seriously and not screw up your chances.”

E-mail Barton Deiters: bdeiters@grpress.com