Harsher Underage Drinking Laws Proposed

Teenagers who get busted for drinking alcohol could soon automatically lose their driver's licenses. A bill that would make that a law passed unanimously out of a house committee today. That bill sounds like bad news to one teen. 16-year-old Lyndsi Lutz says she's been caught drinking before. "I was caught drinking at a bonfire. But my friend... well we were getting taken home by my friend, she was sober. And we were caught. And we were pulled over. We got a breathalyzer. And I was over the legal limit for being 16, which is point zero," says Lutz. And her punishment wasn't so harsh. Lutz says, "My consequences... they never turned in my ticket. So I didn't get any consequences." State Representative Tom Cross thinks underage drinking punishments needs to be harsher. Because right now, underage drinkers can only lose their licenses if they are convicted in court. But Cross says that's not happening. "The reality is most kids get a slap on the wrist. They get the court supervision or fine and they go their merry way," says Cross. Under Cross's proposal you only have to be charged with underage drinking to lose you license for three months. And if you're underage and caught at a party where there's booze but you're not drinking, you won't lose your license. Cross says, "We hope that kids will think twice before they're drinking because they don't want to lose their license. They don't want to be that junior or senior in high school taking a school bus to school or having their parents drop them off at a party or whatever. They're going to think twice." A lot of parents say this bill is a great idea and some teens say it's a rule they could live without.