Community Voices: California Just Signed Four New DUI Laws. For Kern County Families, It Has Been a Long Time Coming.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has signed a package of new DUI laws that represent the most significant legislative action on impaired driving accountability in California in years. For Kern County, it was long overdue.

For the families who have spent months, and in some cases years, advocating in Sacramento for these changes, the moment carried the full weight of everything it cost them to get there. And for Kern County, a community that ranks among the worst in the nation for DUI rates, these laws arrive as both a validation of long advocacy and an acknowledgment of how much work remains.

“None of these laws undo the tragedies that inspired them,” said Matt Clark, managing partner and attorney at Chain | Cohn | Clark and board member with MADD Kern County. “But they close gaps that Kern County families have suffered with for far too long.”

Clark published those words in a Community Voices column in The Bakersfield Californian the week after the signing. The column, drawn from 25 years of representing families whose lives were split into before and after by impaired drivers, laid out plainly what these laws mean and why they matter to this specific community.

What the Four Laws Do

The four bills signed by Gov. Newsom on Sept. 25 address distinct but related gaps in California’s DUI accountability framework. Each was shaped in significant part by the advocacy of grieving families who testified in Sacramento so that others would not have to live what they had.

• Senate Bill 907, known as Braun’s Law, is named for an 18-year-old killed by a driver who had a prior DUI that had been plea-bargained down. Under prior law, that history made it difficult to charge a subsequent fatal DUI offense as murder. The new law makes it easier to charge a drunken driver with murder when a prior DUI is on their record, even if that earlier case was reduced, and stiffens penalties for fatal hit-and-runs by drivers with a DUI history.
• Assembly Bill 1687, known as Irene’s Law, targets the repeat offenders that attorneys like Clark see most frequently in their practice. It extends license revocation from three to eight years after a third impaired-driving conviction, while offering a path back after four years for those who install an ignition interlock device. The combination creates what the law’s supporters describe as a real deterrent with a route to accountability.
• Assembly Bill 1685 raises DMV violation points for gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated from two to three, keeping those convictions visible on a driving record for longer. The change brings California more in line with other states and ensures that a history of dangerous impaired driving follows an offender in a way the prior point system did not adequately capture.
• Assembly Bill 1546 closes what advocates have called the fourth DUI discount. Under prior California law, a third DUI within ten years was typically still charged as a misdemeanor, even with two prior convictions on record. AB 1546 lets prosecutors charge that third offense as a felony, meaning state prison and a permanent record rather than another trip through county jail. For repeat offenders, Clark wrote, that is often the only consequence serious enough to change behavior before someone else is killed.

Why Kern County’s Voice Was in Sacramento

These laws did not emerge from abstract policy discussions. They were shaped by the testimony of families from communities like Kern County who appeared before legislative committees to describe what the existing gaps had cost them personally.

Kern County advocates, attorneys, and survivors have been pushing for stronger DUI accountability legislation for years. The Kern County petition at bit.ly/duipetition, initiated by the Law Office of Chain | Cohn | Clark, has gathered more than 10,000 signatures, was launched after a young married couple and rideshare passengers who did everything right was killed by an impaired driver. Chain | Cohn | Clark has been part of that advocacy through its partnership with MADD Kern County, its sponsorship of the annual Move With MADD 5K, and its attorneys’ direct participation in legislative outreach.

Matt Clark was among those who stood alongside MADD advocates, victim families, and bipartisan lawmakers including local representatives to push for this package. The Safe California Roads Coalition, which includes Jovon Dangerfield, whose 20-year-old son Cameron was killed by a repeat DUI offender on Interstate 5 in Kern County, brought lived experience directly into the legislative process.

“I am inspired each time I watch a family member who lost a loved one to a drunken driver take their grief, sorrow and pain and use it to advocate for change,” Clark wrote in The Bakersfield Californian. “That push for change isn’t over; only four of an original 17-bill package survived this session, and advocates are already pushing for more next year. But they are real progress, shaped by grieving families who testified in Sacramento so others wouldn’t have to.”

The Local Numbers Behind the National Conversation

California’s DUI legislative conversation is national in scope, but the data that drives Kern County’s particular urgency is local and specific.

According to the Transportation Injury Mapping System, UC Berkeley SafeTREC, and the California Office of Traffic Safety, alcohol-involved crashes in Kern County reached 573 in 2025, the highest total in the past decade. Alcohol-involved crash injuries climbed to 857, also the highest recorded figure in the dataset and a dramatic increase from 601 injuries in 2016. In Bakersfield specifically, 2025 brought 220 alcohol-involved crashes, 350 injuries, and 13 deaths.

In 2025, the Bakersfield Police Department logged 788 DUI arrests, 443 DUI crashes, and 14 DUI fatalities. The California Highway Patrol’s Bakersfield division added 2,224 arrests and 27 fatalities. The Kern County District Attorney’s Office is currently prosecuting more than 1,600 misdemeanor DUI cases and more than 70 DUI felonies.

Kern County ranks worst in the nation for DUI arrest rates and among the worst in California for DUI crashes resulting in injury. Those rankings are not a point of civic pride. They are a call for exactly the kind of legislative action that Sacramento just delivered.

“Bakersfield recently ranked one of the worst in the nation for DUI rates, with our city’s police department logging 788 DUI arrests last year, many of them involving a repeat offender,” Clark wrote. “Kern County saw 500-plus alcohol-related crashes in 2025, dozens fatal. Every one of us knows a family touched by this.”

What Local Advocates and Attorneys Are Saying

The response from Kern County’s legal and advocacy community to the signing has been measured: welcoming of the progress, clear-eyed about what remains unfinished.

Kern County law enforcement leaders and prosecutors who spoke to local media following the signing acknowledged the significance of the package while noting that enforcement of the new laws will require sustained attention. The tools are now sharper. Using them consistently and effectively is the work that follows.

For attorneys who handle DUI crash cases, the practical implications are concrete. The charging changes under SB 907 and AB 1546 expand the range of criminal accountability available to prosecutors in cases involving repeat offenders, which affects both the criminal outcomes and, indirectly, the civil cases that run parallel to them. A conviction under the strengthened provisions creates a more complete legal record of an offender’s history, which can be relevant in civil proceedings seeking full accountability for the harm caused.

The DMV point changes under AB 1685 affect how long a DUI conviction remains visible on a driving record, which has implications for civil claims in which the defendant’s prior history is relevant to the damages analysis. In cases where a driver with a documented DUI history caused a crash, that history can support arguments for enhanced civil damages reflecting the deliberate disregard for public safety that repeat impaired driving represents.

“For 25 years, I have practiced law in Bakersfield, representing individuals and families whose lives were split into before and after by someone who chose to drive impaired,” Clark wrote. “I wish those cases were rare here. They are not.”

The Work That Remains

Kern County advocates are not treating the four signed bills as a finish line. Only four of an original 17-bill package survived the legislative session, and the gaps that remain are real.

Among the measures that did not advance this session are provisions that would have addressed how DUI diversion programs interact with DMV point accumulation, expanded ignition interlock requirements to a broader range of first offenses, and strengthened the evidentiary standards for proving prior DUI history in felony enhancement proceedings. Advocates intend to return to Sacramento with those proposals in the next legislative session.

The community-level work continues in parallel. The DUI petition remains active and continues to gather signatures. MADD Kern County’s programs, sustained in part by the more than $700,000 raised through the annual Move With MADD event since 2014, continue to support local victims, fund prevention education in schools, and support DUI checkpoint operations throughout the county.

“Major kudos to all of those hard-working advocates, many of whom are victims themselves, who did the real heavy lifting to get these new laws enacted,” Clark wrote. “But that push for change isn’t over.”

What These Laws Mean for Families Navigating the Legal System

For families in Kern County who are dealing with the aftermath of a DUI crash, understanding what these new laws do, and what they do not do, requires clear legal guidance.

The criminal provisions of SB 907, AB 1687, AB 1685, and AB 1546 govern what charges prosecutors can bring and what penalties courts can impose. Those are decisions made by the District Attorney’s office, not by the crash victim or their family. The civil process, through which an injured person or surviving family pursues compensation for medical expenses, lost income, pain and suffering, and wrongful death, runs separately and independently of the criminal case.

In Kern County DUI crash cases, civil claims can proceed regardless of how the criminal case resolves, including in cases where charges are reduced or a defendant accepts a plea agreement that does not fully reflect the harm caused. California law also permits claims for punitive damages in DUI crash cases, reflecting the courts’ recognition that choosing to drive drunk is not an accident but a decision, and that decision carries consequences beyond the compensatory damages available in ordinary negligence cases.

Chain | Cohn | Clark has handled DUI crash cases throughout Kern County and California for nearly 100 years. The firm’s attorneys have represented injured survivors and grieving families in cases involving first-time and repeat DUI offenders, and have advocated both in the courtroom and in the community for the accountability that those families deserve.

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If you or someone you know is injured in an accident at the fault of someone else, or injured on the job no matter whose fault it is, contact the attorneys at Chain | Cohn | Clark by calling (661) 323-4000, or fill out a free consultation form, text, or chat with us at chainlaw.com.