SACRAMENTO — If it becomes law, a new California Senate bill would give the Department of Motor Vehicles the authority to suspend automobile driver’s license of any boater convicted of boating under the influence (BUI) of alcohol.

Vice chairman of the Senate’s Public Safety Committee Sen. John Benoit (R-Bermuda Dunes) is the author of Senate Bill 154, which would reinstate the 1990s practice of suspending California driver’s licenses of boaters who are caught taking the helm while intoxicated.

“The same reckless mindset is at work when intoxicated individuals take either the wheel of the car or control of a watercraft,” Benoit said.

According to the California Depart- Department of Boating & Waterways, a total of 55 fatalities occurred on California waterways in the most recent reporting year, and half of those deaths involved alcohol.

If approved, the Senate Bill would reinstate the DMV’s ability to suspend driver’s licenses for BUI offenders. The department began suspending hundreds of boaters’ driver’s licenses of in the mid 1990s. A California Court of Appeals ended the process in 2008, stating there was a lack of explicit statutory authority to allow such suspensions, according to Benoit’s office.

SB 154 would amend state law to permit the DMV to resume its license suspension policy.

“Having spent eight years in DUI enforcement, making over 1,000 arrests, I have witnessed how the bad choices made under the influence of alcohol have created countless tragedies,” Benoit said. “My legislation reflects the seriousness of BUI offenses, protecting the safety of travelers on California’s streets, highways, and waterways.”