brighid

Yeap - I can see why they would be hesitant. I vaguely remember reading something about that.

Brighid

Loren Pechtel

I don't think people will learn.

I know one dead from a drunk driver.

Loren Pechtel

How about the following:

Allocate a big field somewhere. Every time a drunk driver kills someone else but not himself you put a land mine in the field. The mines are marked but the marks aren't all that big--a sober driver can make them out in time but not with a lot of margin. Every time someone is convicted of drunk driving they have to drive across the field within a set time limit while at the BA level they were at when caught.

Mageth

Originally posted by Oxymoron
Would people support life imprisonment (manslaughter/murder 2) for killing a pedestrian or other whilst drink driving? I think I would.

A bit extreme, in my opinion. What we need is even tougher and consistently administered punishment for those caught DUI, such as a stiff, mandatory jail sentence, a heavy fine, revocation of driver's licence, confiscation of the automobile, etc. (it's tougher now than it used to be, but apparently not tough enough).

Other things to consider is to restrict youth driving at night, esp. late Friday and Saturday nights (say 9 pm to 3 am), which are the most deadly times to be on the road. An a limit on the number of passengers someone under, say, 21, can have in a car without an adult present.

diana

Thank you, Ronin, for making it personal. That's the only way I've ever found to get people to truly understand the consequences of their actions and that the gamble that "I won't get caught" and "I'll get home safely" and "Nothing bad will happen" is never worth it.

I did my share of drunk driving when I was younger. I'm not proud of this, but I say it in the interest of full disclosure. Despite the fact that I knew better, it had never been made personal to me.

Although the amount that I drank and the frequency with which I'd get behind the wheel after drinking anything dropped drastically as I got older, I continued to occasionally drive when I shouldn't have.

It was not made personal, I'm sorry to add, until about two years ago when a young woman I knew and thought very highly of killed herself and her roommate coming home one night. She also had the intelligence and presence of mind to know better--but had done it anyway.

They were driving up Hwy 1 after a concert about 2am on a Monday when their car left the road. Later information revealed that the young woman had still been alive when the highway patrol found her, mangled and lying in a ditch. She died en route to the hospital. Her roommate lived only a couple of hours in intensive care.

Now, I'll take a cab or walk to a hotel if I've had anything that could even possibly maybe compromise my ability to drive.

What's awful is that it took a personal tragedy to make it real to me, once and for all.

And it kills me to know anyone drinks anything and gets behind the wheel, because short of something awful happening to someone close to them, I don't know how to get the point across. "Don't drink and drive" is just a cliche. Tragedy is real.

d

never been there

I just got my license last week (at 39!!) and although as an old man I get let off some of the more onerous graduated licensing restrictions, I'm on 0 blood alcohol for a year. Works for me. Sometimes a six-pack doesn't give me a buzz, but other times one beer just goes straight to my head.

There's a reason I choose to live within crawling distance of downtown and a decent bar district.

Oxidizing Material

Actually, I support the Rape Punishement after losing a car full of extended family, one 6 years of age to a drunk pickup truck driver.

The Rape penalty is simple, the convicted are put in solitary confinement for a minimum of 25 years and every day for 3 hours they are taken out and raped with what I like to call "The Rapinator".

The Rapinator is basically an electric jigsaw with a 12 inch studded dildo attached where the blade goes and wrapped in barb wire. No lube is involved.

Their cells contain a noose hanging 2 feet off the ground on a pipe. The cycle continues daily until they make the choice.

seanie

If your looking for a new job I hear the CIA is on a recruitment drive.

christ-on-a-stick

The thing that frustrates me is that people will go to a bar and drop $80 on a bar tab but then not want to spend 10 or 20 bucks on a cab.

My friends and I *always* cab it now, both ways. A small price to pay. This was not always the case but last year 4 out of about 12 of my friends got DUI's. Big wakeup call for them AND the rest of us... now it's either a cab, walking distance or parties at personal domiciles or somebody will be the designated driver.

Jimmy Higgins

While I'm pretty sure that would be "inhumane" I'm sure I'd support such an amendment to the US Constitution.

I cycle on the roadways. Cyclists get killed every once in a while by a person who thinks his time or money is worth more than another person's life. I've told my parents, if I'm ever killed by a drunk, that they are to sue him for his Drivers License (as in he never gets i back) and some cash too (seeing I wouldn't be able to give them stuff anymore, he/she'd need to make up for that).

I've never driven drunk. Hell, I've never been drunk. And I hold very little regard to anyone who'd make such a terrible choice to decide to drive drunk. Unfortunately, so many people have done so means that very few people would support much tougher laws on drunk driving. Fucking hypocrits.

How about this? I hope that every person that has driven drunk, sees their family get into an alcohol related accident.