If you're going to drive drunk, leave the kids at home.

It's a message at least four states are sending to drunk drivers--if you're dumb enough to drink and drive, don't take the kids along. The newest trend in law enforcement is to hand down stiffer penalties or bring additional charges against people convicted of drunk driving with children in the vehicle.

Most states have comprehensive drunk driving laws on the books including administrative license revocation and mandatory minimum fines and sentences. Now the trend in state legislatures is to address specific types of drivers, like young drivers or repeat offenders, and specific situations, such as drunk driving in a commercial setting or with children in the car.

California, Georgia, Louisiana and Tennessee have enacted laws to protect children from the carelessness of drunk drivers who take them along for the ride.

In California and Louisiana, stiffer penalties are handed down against convicted drunk drivers who had minors present in the vehicle at the time of their arrest. Georgia has additional charges and Tennessee has both additional charges and stiffer penalties.

California enhances the punishment for drunk drivers who have a child under age 14 in the car at the time of the offense. First-time offenders are given 48 hours of jail time; second timers serve 10 days; third-time offenders get to spend 30 days in jail; and fourth timers can expect an additional 90 days--all of that mandatory and in addition to the usual fines and jail time. The mandatory jail time for having a child in the car is significant in that California has no jail time for first offenders and only 48 hours for repeat offenders who are convicted of the standard drunk driving offense.

Louisiana took an even tougher stance in its law enacted in 1993. If a person is convicted of drunk driving and a child under 12 was present in the vehicle, the first offense results in an additional 10 days and a second gets 30 days. Third-time offenders get an extra year, and a fourth conviction results in an additional two years of mandatory jail time added to the usual sentence, which is a maximum of six months in jail for repeat offenders.

Taking a different approach, Georgia has created the separate offense of "endangering a child by driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol." Along with the standard drunk driving offenses, charges are also pressed for endangering a child. And the law specifically states that such charges cannot be merged into the related drunk driving offenses. The statute applies to drunk driving arrests where a child age 14 or younger was present in the vehicle.

Tennessee's law is possibly the toughest, combining enhanced penalties and separate charges. In addition to the usual penalties ranging from 48 hours up to four months in jail and fines from $250 to $1,000, drunk drivers who had a child under the age of 13 present in the vehicle at the time of the offense get an additional mandatory 30 days in jail and an additional fine of $1,000. They are also charged with the separate offense of misdemeanor child endangerment. If the child is injured or killed, the offense is aggravated child endangerment, a felony.

The laws are too new to determine if they have been statistically effective. But if any young lives are saved, anti-drunk driving advocates say they have been successful.