SACRAMENTO - Following the failure of AB 1686 in the Assembly Public Safety Committee, Assemblymember Lackey (R-Palmdale), a nearly 30-year veteran of the California Highway Patrol, issued the following emotional statement.
AB 1686 would have allowed for a person who receives their second DUI within 10 years to be charged with a felony or misdemeanor.
“Today, politics won and victims lost.
For nearly three decades, I wore the uniform and lived the consequences of this committee in real time. I’ve stood on highways covered in shattered glass, with the sounds of sirens and sobbing family members – watching as families were torn apart in a single heartbreaking moment.
I remember the faces. I remember the devastation. Those are the realities this committee chose to ignore.
I cannot accept turning our backs on victims. I will not stop fighting - because no family should have to face that tragedy.”
