Times Observer file photo Field sobriety tests are conducted during a September 2020 DUI checkpoint in Youngsville. A new state law increases penalties for some repeat DUI offenders

Changes to driving under the influence laws in Pennsylvania will bring harsher penalties for individuals who have multiple DUIs on their record.

According to PennDOT, Act 59 of 2022 called Deana’s Law, increases the grading for certain DUI offenses including those with a testing refusal, the highest rate BAC or DUIs involving controlled substances.

Defendants would face a third-degree felony if they pick up a third overall offense and that rises to a second-degree felony for those with three or more priors.

Second-degree felonies bring a maximum of 10 years in prison.

“It’s not going to hit the person that gets a first-offense DUI,” District Attorney Rob Greene explained. “There’s a lot of good people that get DUIs. It’s a bad thing to do. The majority of people… have probably driven when they shouldn’t have.”

This is targeted at “people that continually get DUIs,” he said.

Greene explained that a prior change similar to this a couple years ago increased the grading on DUI offenses but did not change the mandatory minimums.

As a result, “the court had more time to work with if they wanted it.” This legislation is “now increasing it just a little bit more.”

There’s a question of fairness, though, for defendants who may have picked up two DUIs 30 years ago and then pick up one now.

Greene said that is a “good question” that “comes up oftentimes with sentencing.” Prior record scores can “exponentially increase” sentences.

“The prior record score stays the same as if you had done it 20 years ago. Is there a fairness there? No,” though he suggested there are new sentencing statues in the works that could aim to reduce that record score of time.

“You probably should have learned your lesson back in 1991 is the argument for it,” he added.

The law also requires sentences to be served consecutively for some repeat DUI offenders and an 18-month license suspension for those charged with the more serious felony.

“Oftentimes, more often than you would think,” Greene said, defendants pick up multiple DUIs in quick succession. “Some courts, Warren County court never did this that I’ve really seen, a lot of courts will run the two sentences concurrent. They’re saying now you can’t do that. It has to be consecutive for multiple DUIs.”

The bill is named for Deana Eckman, a Delaware County resident, who was killed when her vehicle was struck by an intoxicated driver, according to a legislative memo. The charges stemming from the crash resulted in driver’s sixth DUI offense.