Under the proposal, Consalvo said, valet drivers would withhold car keys from those who seem intoxicated; it remains to be determined whether they would be required to do so or just encouraged to do so. The car would be kept in the parking lot overnight without charging an additional cost, he said.
“Boston has been a leader in being creative to prevent drunk driving,’’ Consalvo said. “This could be another venue where we could be a model to keep drunk drivers off the road.’’
Joshua Lemay, director of operations at Ultimate Parking, said he was intrigued when Consalvo contacted him about the legislation last month. But he worries that the proposed ordinance could make valet attendants legally liable for the safety of their patrons if they fail to detect that a customer has had a couple of beers too many.
“We want to make sure that if, for some reason, someone doesn’t recognize the situation, we aren’t held accountable for someone else’s actions,’’ Lemay said.
Consalvo said he hopes that legislation will complement John’s Law, the 2002 city ordinance that imposes a 12-hour period before people arrested for drunken driving can retrieve their impounded cars.
Consalvo said he thought of the idea in December, when he read about Andrew Prior, 23, a Northeastern University graduate who was killed in a November 2010 hit-and-run. The driver in that accident, Colin Ratiu, told police after his arrest that he was “blackout drunk’’ at the time of the crash and could not believe that a valet attendant gave him his keys to drive, prosecutors said.
The hearing, which Consalvo expects will take place within a month, will help him iron out the details of the proposed ordinance, he said. In one potential scenario, valet parking attendants would be required to notify a supervisor if they believe that a patron asking for a car is drunk. The supervisor may deny the patron his car keys or, if the patron argues, will call police to administer a breathalyzer test and determine if the patron is fit to drive.
