Local News

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) ― Returning from Christmas shopping four years ago, Donald and Norma Romanio were driving down Route 60 when a car came barreling at them in the wrong lane.

Hours later, their son Donald answered the phone.

"And I got a call from the Lawrence County Coroner's office and said that there had been a bad accident. And he told me mother had already died."

His father died a short time later. Police arrested the driver, Joseph Stemple, Jr., of Bethlehem.

"They said that they thought he was drunk. And it turned out that he was. He was ... four times the legal limit," Romanio said.

Not only was Stemple drunk beyond any level of functioning, it wasn't the first time. He'd been arrested three times that year for driving drunk, but because none of those cases had come to trial, he was still driving legally.

"Pennsylvania says it's tough but ... it's a joke. You know, it's a big joke when you let somebody have three DUI's and continue driving. Then there's something wrong," Romanio said.

State Sen. Jane Orie, R-North Hills, says what happened to the Romanios was a tragedy that should have been averted. But the state's drunk driving law, she says, has loopholes big enough for repeat offenders to drive through and keep driving.

"There are hardcore drunk drivers and we don't have laws that address these hardcore drunk drivers and ... the more we are lax in that, the more tragedies like this that are going to come forward," she said.

Sine the Romanios died, the state has adopted the use of ignition interlocks - a device that requires a driver to blow into a breathalyzer in order to start a car. But critics argue that interlocks can be circumvented if a sober person blows into the device for a drunk and point out that interlocks are required only for drivers who have been convicted at least twice.

Orie wants sanctions against first-time offenders and is eyeing another device to do it - SCRAM, which stands for secure controlled remote alcohol monitoring.

The bracelet, when attached to an offender's ankle, can detect alcohol vapor coming from the person's pores. If they drink, it will register on computer screens monitored by a private company and reported to law enforcement and the courts.

Orie wants to make it law that all drunk drivers are fitted with one on the day or night of their arrest.

"It's protection for the community. It's a way to ensure that until they go to trial - it's protection," Orie said.

Somewhat suprisingly, the American Civil Liberties Union in Pittsburgh does not object to Orie's proposal, but Romanio would like to take it a step further and empower police officers to strip offenders of their license at the time of arrest.

The ACLU will object to that, but Romanio says he promised his parents at their gravesite to press on.

"I promised that I would do anything I could do to find justice," he said. "I haven't had justice yet and I've had a lot of sleepless nights with this."

And to add insult to injury, after four years in jail, Stemple's sentence has been vacated or struck down because of a poorly-worded state law regarding the death of more than one person in a homicide case.

Stemple will now have to be re-tried or re-sentenced and Romanio fears he will go free. And Romanio says he will remain a threat to others if he's allowed to drive again.

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