LINCOLN — The woman who veered her car across the center line and smashed head-on into Joe Cowan's car last March 30 had spent the previous hours downing drink after drink at an Omaha bar.
Both she and Cowan, 55, of Council Bluffs died in the crash.
Cowan could have lived, state lawmakers were told Wednesday, if Nebraska made bar owners liable when they continue to serve drunken people who then cause deaths and injuries.
“I have no doubt this would have saved Joe Cowan,” said former State Sen. Lowen Kruse of Omaha.
Kruse said Legislative Bill 1075 would give liquor license holders the motivation to keep better watch over their staffs and to stop overserving intoxicated people.
The bill, introduced by Sen. Tom Carlson of Holdrege, would add Nebraska to the list of states with “dramshop” laws.
It would make bar and restaurant owners liable for serving alcohol to people who are intoxicated or who the owners “knew or should have known ... would become intoxicated.”
Nebraska now has a law holding hosts liable for serving alcohol to minors who then kill or injure others. But the law does not apply to those serving adults.
Nebraska Athletic Director Tom Osborne said studies in the 42 states with dramshop laws have found changes in behavior.
Bars and restaurants offer fewer drink promotions, do a more thorough job of checking identification and serve an average of 1.6 fewer drinks per person at each sitting.
Those states also have seen a nearly 6 percent decrease in alcohol-related fatalities, he said.
Michelle and Anna Jo Cowan, the widow and daughter of Joe Cowan, told Judiciary Committee members about the toll those fatalities take on families.
Their nightmare began the night two Iowa State Patrol officers arrived at their door, said Anna Jo, a high school junior.
“I no longer have my father to guide me in my life decisions,” she said.
Michelle Cowan said that because the accident happened in Nebraska, not Iowa, which has a dramshop law, she could not hold the bar responsible.
But representatives of bar owners and restaurants argued that the bill would impose too heavy a burden on liquor license holders.
Buying the liability insurance required under LB 1075 could add thousands of dollars to the cost of doing business, said Jim Moylan, a lobbyist for the Nebraska Licensed Beverage Association.
He said a dramshop law would represent a departure from existing law by making someone liable who did not directly cause death or injury.
The same sort of logic leads people to sue gun shops for shootings by patrons or fast-food restaurants for obesity problems, Moylan said.
“There's got to be some personal responsibility for the person who caused the damage,” he said.
Kathy Siefken, executive director of the Nebraska Grocery Industry Association, questioned whether bar owners can control all situations.
She told of seeing a man at a bar get falling-down drunk with drinks that his friends had gone up and bought for him.
Because the bill has not been named a priority, it is unlikely to be debated this year even if it gets out of committee. Carlson said he will continue working on the issue over the coming months.
Contact the writer:
402-473-9583, martha.stoddard@owh.com
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