OKLAHOMA CITY — A bill to crack down on underaged drinking on party buses is swiftly moving through the state legislature, said the bill’s author.

Sen. Debbe Leftwich, D-Oklahoma City, said her bill to establish penalties for operators and owners of party buses who serve alcohol to minors while using their services has moved out of the Oklahoma State Senate and will be brought up in the Oklahoma House of Representatives within the next few weeks.

Leftwich said the bill is based off of an incident that occurred in her district last spring when a group of high school students showed up to their prom heavily intoxicated.

“They literally fell off the bus and out the door because they were so drunk,” Leftwich said. “However, state statues did not have anything on the books about prosecuting these types of situations, so many have asked me to take action.”

Leftwich said she attempted to take action last spring, but failed to pass any type of emergency legislation because the legislative session was coming to an end.

“The students were suspended from school, but there was no action taken toward the bus driver and the bus company,” Leftwich said.

A new bill was brought up with the same language this session, she said.

Leftwich said the bill is meant to target high school aged minors who receive alcohol from the buses.

“This bill could affect some college students, but college students are not the intended target of this bill,” she said. “This bill is to focus on getting alcohol out of the hands of high school students who have had alcohol provided to them on these buses.”

Elizabeth Lucas, University College freshman, said she remembers hearing rumors about alcohol being transported to school functions such as prom.

“I always heard about students who came in limos stashing wine in the sides of the cars,” she said.

Lucas said she thinks a crack down would be a good thing and would prevent minors who rent the vehicles from becoming intoxicated.

Leftwich said aside from her constituents, she has received support from companies that operate party buses in the metro area.

“We support the legislation,” said Jennifer Paris, spokeswoman for Paris Limousine of Oklahoma City. “We never serve alcohol to minors on our buses, but we have heard other companies do.”

Paris said her company actually has two employees monitoring minors who rent their vehicles.

“We have a driver, and we have an attendant,” Paris said. “The attendants on our vehicles are not permitted to serve minors alcohol. They are also there to make sure that the law is abided by.”

Leftwich said when she tried to confront the company that caused the incident in her district, she could find no trace of the business.

“When they heard we were looking into them, they literally disappeared,” Leftwich said. “We haven’t heard any complaints about that company, but nothing is stopping them from coming back under a new name. When they come back, we have to be ready so we don’t have another incident again.”