Governor Larry Hogan Wins Responsibility.org’s 2018 Leadership Award

Leading a state like Maryland necessitates a keen awareness of a variety of pressing issues. Impaired driving remains a critical problem not only in Maryland, but across the nation. It takes strong leaders to enact meaningful change in such a complicated issue area. This year, Responsibility.org honors Maryland Governor Larry Hogan for his leadership in promoting legislation to end impaired driving in Maryland.

Governor Larry Hogan lead the charge in fighting to raise penalties for repeat DUI offenders. His sponsorship of Senate Bill 296 and House Bill 349 would have significantly increased penalties for repeat DUI offenders by making the fourth and subsequent offenses a felony. The added punitiveness that felony charges carry has the potential to remove these individuals from the road and protect the public at large when other attempts to rehabilitate the offender have failed. We look forward to advocating for this legislation again in 2019.

In 2016, Governor Hogan signed Noah’s Law, a law that requires all convicted drunk drivers to install an ignition interlock device into their vehicle, to prevent drunk drivers from re-offending. Maryland now has one of the most robust ignition interlock programs in the nation. It may be why in 2016, Maryland was one of only eighteen states that experienced a decline in drunk driving deaths with a change rate of -24.7% per a 100,000 population.

Governor Hogan effectively uses his platform to shine a light on important policy gaps in Maryland’s DUI legislation. Responsibility.org commends Governor Hogan for his continued commitment to saving lives on Maryland roadways.