Walk the halls of the California State Capitol and you might see Kellie Montalvo and her son.
She carries a poster showing Benjamin Montalvo, who died in 2020 after being struck by a hit-and-run driver, as she lobbies lawmakers face to face for tougher traffic safety laws. One measure — requiring first-time DUI offenders to install breathalyzers in their vehicles to start them up — appeared poised to sail through the legislature.
But 11th-hour changes by the state Senate Appropriations Committee to make the breathalyzers optional neuter AB 1830 and endanger the public, critics said.
“If legislators kill this bill at the last minute and render it unworkable, they have blood on their hands,” said Montalvo, a Corona resident. “I have no issue saying that.”
Sen. Sabrina Cervantes, D-Riverside, chairs the committee, an influential body in Sacramento due to its purse-string powers. The senator’s spokesperson, Michele McKinney, did not respond to multiple requests this week to speak with Cervantes. Cesar Anda, Cervantes’ chief of staff, could not be reached Friday, Aug. 28.
It’s not clear what influence, if any, Cervantes had on the committee’s changes to AB 1830. It’s also not the first time her family has dealt with DUIs.
Sacramento police cited Cervantes in 2025 for DUI following a minor crash blocks from the capitol.
Prosecutors declined to file charges after a blood test showed no drugs or alcohol in her system at the time of the accident. In April, Cervantes sued the Sacramento Police Department, accusing officers of misconduct in citing her.
Cervantes’ sister, Democratic Assembly candidate and Riverside City Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes, has two DUIs, one from 2015 and the other from 2023. She entered rehab after her second DUI and has talked about her sobriety on social media.
Responding to emailed questions, Clarissa Cervantes offered one comment: “From what I’ve read about the bill, I would support it.”
She did not elaborate as to whether she discussed AB 1830 with her sister.
Asked if she thought the Cervantes sisters’ history with DUIs influenced the changes to AB 1830, Montalvo said: “I hope with every fiber of my being that isn’t true. If it were true, it would be a grave mistake and draw unnecessary criticism and speculation.”
Alcohol-involved crashes in California killed 1,355 people in 2023, down 4.5% from 2022 but up 55% from 2014, according to the state Office of Traffic Safety.
Ignition interlock devices like those sought in the bill prevent vehicles from starting if the driver’s blood alcohol level is beyond a certain limit.
Currently, California judges have discretion on whether first-time DUI offenders must install the devices. Also, a pilot program run by the Department of Motor Vehicles requires the devices for repeat DUI offenders and first-time offenders who cause injury crashes. AB 1830 would remove judges’ discretion and mandate interlocks for first-time offenders, whether they hurt someone in a crash or not.
“There should be no ‘first-time free pass’ — accountability must begin with the first conviction, before offenders become repeat threats,” the bill’s sponsor, Assemblymember Cottie Petrie-Norris, D-Irvine, said in March.
The bill, which passed the Assembly 74-0, also requires repeat offenders to have interlocks for longer and overhauls penalties for driving while impaired by drugs or alcohol.
AB 1830’s supporters include Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the California Police Chiefs Association and the Automobile Club of Southern California. Opponents include ACLU California Action and the California Public Defenders Association.
The bill “contradicts available evidence about reducing vehicular fatalities, and broadly increases (the) likelihood that a person with a first DUI conviction will never be able to reinstate their license,” the San Francisco public defender’s office was quoted as saying in a legislative analysis of AB 1830.
Mandating interlocks “exacerbates financial harm on low-income communities with numerous new fees and costs,” the office added.
“We appreciate the … intent to make California’s roads safer. However, we will only support evidence-based fatality reduction measures that can be implemented successfully and equitably.”
Cervantes’ committee changed AB 1830 so that first-time DUI offenders who haven’t injured someone can opt to serve a license suspension instead of installing an interlock.
“In other states with laws like that, statistics show offenders simply wait out the time to avoid the interlock,” Montalvo said. “It’s a huge loophole.”
She added: “If this weakened bill becomes law, the likelihood of lawmakers trying to enact a stronger interlock bill in the future would be nearly impossible.”
Montalvo lives in Sabrina Cervantes’ Senate district as well as in the Assembly district that Clarissa Cervantes wants to represent. Montalvo said she’s tried reaching the senator to learn why her committee amended the bill, but hasn’t heard back.
In the meantime, Montalvo said she’s contacted Senate President pro Tempore Monique Limón and other lawmakers in an effort to salvage the original version of AB 1830.
“I don’t know where to put all those feelings or who to blame, so I place blame where the buck stops — with our legislators, who are supposed to be working for their constituents,” Montalvo said.
“This is nonpartisan, common-sense public safety that saves lives,” she said. “How can you argue with that?”
In a Monday, Aug. 24, interview on the way back to Sacramento for the final full week of the legislative session, Petrie-Norris called the late amendments “rather extraordinary” given the timing, and “very unusual from a process perspective.”
She said she’s working with the Senate, the governor’s office and the DMV to get those amendments taken off the bill.
“The proposed amendments are, candidly, a mess,” Petrie-Norris said. “We’re working hard to unravel this and get good policy to the governor’s desk in the last week of session.”
She added: “To me, I am heartbroken about what is happening … I’ve been working so closely for the last three years with a group of parents — who have lost their kids, their moms, their dads, their brothers, their sisters — and have turned that unfathomable grief into advocacy.”
“We’ve been working so closely with MADD, coming up to the Capitol for three years to share their stories,” Petrie-Norris said. “They aren’t doing this to save their kids; they’re doing it to save mine and yours. I don’t know how I’m going to look them in the eye and tell them we failed.”