Opener Container Measure Passes House Committee

A bill to ban an open container of alcohol in a vehicle cleared the House State and Local Government Committee today.

Representative Jon Lundberg, a Bristol Republican, allowed the measure to be amended until the actual offense isn’t a “moving violation,” at least on paper. It would punished only by a fine, and if the offender stays out of trouble for six months, it will disappear from his record.

Currently, Tennessee law allows passengers to have open containers of alcohol, but that makes it easy for a driver to hand off the evidence to a passenger. And the lax law has cost the state federal money.

The federal government has withheld about three million dollars and required the state to put an additional 12-million dollars of transportation money into the Governor’s Highway Safety Program. Representative Lundberg says his proposal will free up that money.

“By passing this law, we get the entire fifteen million dollars, and we can choose whether we want to use it in the safety fund, or if we want to build roads, or do whatever with it. So our options just open up.”

Lundberg says his measure will save money and lives.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving estimate the new law will save 25 lives a year – about 5 percent of current fatalities.

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The bill is HB 3059 Lundberg/SB 3042 Beavers. The bill was deferred in the Senate Judiciary committee until next week.