For Alma Sanchez of Denver, it’s the everyday things, like when she enjoys a good meal, when memories of her late cousin, Juan Carlos Dominguez-Palomino, are stirred.

“Juan was a voracious eater,” she said. “He enjoyed eating Mexican food like no other. He was big and tall, so even when I have a meal, it brings back memories of him.

“They should be happy memories, but you feel sadness.”

Meanwhile, Frank Martinez of Loveland still grieves the loss of his 37-year-old nephew, Gilbert Martinez, and the late father’s two young boys, who were killed in January.

“Every day is just a splash of reality in the face of the absence of my nephew and his two boys,” Martinez said. “We’re still dealing with those losses today.”

Martinez and Dominguez-Palomino did not know each other and their deaths occurred in different parts of the state. But their cut-short lives shared something in common – both men were killed by drunken-drivers who had been arrested for DUI, time and again.

On June 1, families who have lost loved ones to repeat drunken drivers gathered in Wheat Ridge to witness Gov. John Hickenlooper sign a bill into law that creates stiffer penalties for offenders who rack up multiple DUIs.

The new law aims to prevent the kinds of tragedies that have caused great sorrow for families whose lives were devastated because of drunken-drivers.

“There’s probably no one among us who doesn’t know someone who was killed at the hands of a drunk driver, in one place or another,” Hickenlooper said.

New law creates a felony

The law, which takes effect Aug. 5, creates a felony for a fourth DUI conviction, with punishments ranging between two and six years behind bars. Prior to this law, Colorado drivers were only subject to misdemeanor charges regardless of the number of DUIs they accumulated.

Now, Colorado is no longer among a handful of states that have do not have a felony DUI on the books.

The law also mandates that drivers who receive their second DUI conviction install an ignition interlock device for two years. The device requires the driver to be sober before operating a vehicle. The law was signed at LifeLoc Technologies in Wheat Ridge, a company that makes the devices.

A third conviction will result in significant community correction involvement.

A fourth DUI does not automatically mean jail time. A judge is required by law to decide whether all reasonable sentencing options have been exhausted prior to sending someone to jail.

The law came in the form of House Bill 1043, which received overwhelming bipartisan support at the Legislature.

But multiple prior attempts to pass this legislation failed during previous legislative sessions, mainly due to the high cost of incarceration and court administration.

The new law will cost the state $1.4 million this fiscal year, which is considerably lower than previous efforts. But that cost will rise to $4 million and then $8 million over the next two fiscal years, according to a nonpartisan Colorado Legislative Council fiscal analysis.

Former House Minority Leader Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, was instrumental in getting the legislation to this point, in spite of the setbacks he experienced as a bill sponsor in previous sessions.

“Me running this bill, I’m just a small part of it,” he said. “I’m just incredibly thankful to see these people pick up the baton and run with it and make it a priority this year. If the governor hadn’t made this a priority, we wouldn’t be here today.”

Waller and other lawmakers praised the work put in by families whose lives were changed as a result of DUI tragedies. They often testified about those tragedies at committee hearings.

Lawmakers are familiar with Dominguez’s story. The 17-year-old was driving on Colfax Avenue in Aurora on March 24, 2014, when another man – who was allegedly drunk and driving 80 miles per hour – T-boned Dominguez’s vehicle with his.

The man accused of killing Dominguez, Ever Olivos-Guiterrez, had multiple DUI charges prior to the crash.

On Jan. 25, Gilbert Martinez and his wife and two young boys were driving home from church on Weld County’s Highway 85, near La Salle, when a repeat DUI offender barreled his vehicle into the family’s car. Martinez’s wife survived, but Ethan, 6, and Bryson, 1, did not.

Rigoberto-Macias Marquez, 44, who was driving in the wrong lane at the time of the crash, also died that day.

“To me, just knowing that this might prevent any other family to be going through this in the future, there’s peace in my heart and my mind about that,” Frank Martinez said of the new law.

“Today feels like a victory,” Sanchez said. “We’re very happy. We’re all smiles, even though in our hearts we still feel broken.”

Sen. Mike Johnston, D-Denver, a bill sponsor, lauded the efforts of these families in helping make this long-sought effort a reality.

“I do think today is absolutely a tribute to the tenacity of the families who have lost loved ones to this,” Johnston said. “I think there are people who languish from the loss and I think there are people who really lead in that loss.”

“And these families have taken incredible leadership to say, ‘We are going to make sure these losses are not for nothing.’”

– Twitter: @VicVela1