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A pair of Montgomery County legislators plan to push for stricter drunken driving laws during the upcoming legislative session in Annapolis.

Sen. Jamie B. Raskin and Del. Benjamin F. Kramer both said they will introduce legislation to require the Motor Vehicle Administration to install ignition interlock devices in the cars of convicted drunken drivers, including first-time offenders.

The proposed legislation comes in the wake of an October incident in which the vehicle of a previously convicted drunken driver struck and killed a Johns Hopkins University student in Baltimore.

Meanwhile, statistics released this week by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show that alcohol-impaired traffic fatalities declined in Maryland from 178 in 2007 to 152 in 2008, a 12.5 percent decrease.

Under current state law, judges are authorized to put the interlock devices in the cars of convicted drunken drivers, but are not obligated to do so, the two legislators said.

Ignition interlocks are in-car devices that prevent the vehicle from starting if the driver's breath registers above the legal alcohol concentration limit.

Raskin (D-Dist. 20) of Takoma Park and Kramer (D-Dist. 19) of Derwood tried unsuccessfully last session to get a similar bill passed. While the bill passed the Senate, it never made it out of the House Judiciary Committee.

Two years ago, a bill to mandate ignition interlocks failed to pass out of the Judiciary Committee amid concerns that results above the legal limit could be used to file additional charges against offenders and that monthly reports could be released to employers. The language about the monthly reports was removed from the bill sponsored last session by Kramer.

The ignition interlocks "should be required for anybody who has a drunk driving conviction," Raskin said. "It's a very small price to pay, once you've been convicted of drunk driving, to breathe into one of these devices. We're going to do everything we can to see that it passes in Maryland."

Raskin's and Kramer's ignition interlock bills could receive more traction next session because of two recent, highly publicized drunken driving incidents.

In October, Miriam Frankl, a 20-year-old Johns Hopkins student, was struck and killed allegedly by a vehicle owned by Thomas Meighan Jr., who has at least eight drunken driving convictions in Maryland.

On Nov. 20, Kendall S. Smith was sentenced in Montgomery County District Court to 358 days in jail for hitting County Executive Isiah Leggett's (D) vehicle last March. Smith had been on probation because of a previous drunken driving incident in Wheaton.

For the accident involving Leggett, Smith must seek alcohol treatment at the Kolmac Clinic addiction treatment program, have an ignition interlock breath-test system in his car and attend a self-help group such as Alcoholics Anonymous five times a week, said Margaret Schweitzer, an assistant state's attorney for the Montgomery County State's Attorney's Office.

Forty-six states and Washington, D.C., authorize or mandate the use of an ignition interlock system to deter alcohol-impaired driving, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Alabama, Maine, South Dakota and Vermont do not authorize the use of an ignition interlock system.

In 2005, New Mexico became the first state to enact legislation requiring the use of ignition interlocks for all convicted drunken drivers, including first-time offenders. The ignition interlock devices currently are mandated for first-time DUI offenders in eight states.

Maryland lawmakers should require the interlock devices for first-time offenders "because they are just as dangerous as repeat offenders," said Caroline Cash, executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Maryland. "It is the most effective way of reducing alcohol-related fatalities."

Current drunken driving laws aren't working, Kramer said.

"All that we have done is in the form of punishment, and that doesn't seem to be effective or successful," he said.

Staff Writers Melissa J. Brachfeld and Jeanette Der Bedrosian contributed to this report.