Let's apply the same thinking to speed limits. Think about how few serious accidents there would be if we had a universal 10 mph limit. You can't be too careful, right? Until someone gets killed and then we'll have to seriously consider dropping the limit to 5 mph.
With ideas like that you should be able to slide right in to a corporate HSE position. That is exactly how our safety dorks think.
Thirty years ago, or more, most DUI suspects would face a judge, if it went that far, and be fined a little bit and sent home. Over the following decades society has had less and less patience with that sequence of events and is demanding more. Drunk drivers are a fucking menace to society and their actions are completely unnecessary. Drunks need to be placed in a secure place long enough to dry out completely before they're allowed back into society. Incidentally, I suspect that in most states a person convicted of a DUI, and is placed into one of those schools or treatment centers for alcoholism, has had their license to drive revoked or at least suspended for a time. As far as I'm concerned, if a person is caught a second time for DUI, they need to be working on a prison farm for 10 years or more.
Say, Orvis, would you describe them as… umm... defenders of the indefensible? That would be ironic. And I agree with everything you said.
Society cannot pass a law, that I know of, which is applied to an individual. For example, I've read about a few people that have a gastric anomaly that renders them drunk if they eat certain foods that are converted to alcohol in the stomach or gut. Guess what, those people can still be too drunk to drive even though they haven't taken a drink or taken anything else. Law has decided that we cannot discriminate against one person or group of people and not have that law apply to everyone equally. The whole point of DUI law is to make driving on the public streets as safe as it can be and still carry on a normal life. IYC's point about taking the speed limit to 10 mph makes a great leap to the absurd unless you're in a trailer park. Society, as we know it, cannot survive with a 10 mph speed limit. Speed, in and of itself, is not the danger when driving. It's the dumbasses that don't pay attention to their driving that causes deaths. If a person used their head and only drove within their own skill level accidents would drop drastically. There are too many distractions so, in those conditions, maybe a 10 mph limit would help speeders but, we're back to discrimination restrictions again. Everybody plays by the same rules. I feel very, very fortunate. I grew up in a time and place where I did drive and drink regularly but was lucky enough to get away with it. It was in a mostly rural community, and at a time where, if we were to be stopped for being drunk, we would have been driven home by the police so we could sleep it off. We could retrieve our cars the next day. That was one of most stupid eras of my life. I know how it feels to be gloriously drunk. It was fun until the next morning when my head felt like I had run over it with my own car. When I say that the alcohol level needs to be .00 I know where I'm coming from.
Why don't we just ban alcoholic beverages at restaurants? What about banning parking lots at bars? All patrons must take a taxi, drinking or not? Hell we should just go back to prohibition. While we're at it how about them gun laws? We should just keep passing more and more laws until the problem eventually goes away right? I mean the country was pretty emotional after sandy hook, we should have just banned all guns that way it could never happen again right? By your own admission you should be sitting in jail. And you were drunk. We're talking .05 here that's not drunk, especially if you consider a margin of error.
When DUI laws are enforced to full effect in the Judicial System, they work... When you see them cut deals, where it costs the offender more to continue to drive, get out of jail sooner, reduced probation... It becomes more about Revenue Generation and a Revolving Door. I don't agree with lowering the bar.. But do with holding it firmly where it is set.
The small, redneck town I grew up in got a county DA that wanted to make a name for himself. He pushed on the various police departments to crack down hard on people driving with any amount of booze in them. They'd mark the tires of cars parked near bars, time the amount of time they were there and be on the look out for those cars. They 'd go for every charge they could get out of people they pulled over and forget deals, you were going to jail. Had the desired effect. A good number of restaurants closed up because people stopped going out at all to avoid this shit.
Damn! you've completely jumped the tracks on this haven't you? Hell, we might as well just off ourselves if we follow your jump to the extreme.
I agree completely. Dropping it to the .05 level is probably not going to be noticeable for the average driver but some drivers it will. There should not be any deviance on DUI punishment. If you're drunk and driving, it's to the hoosegow for you.
You do realise you're saying you should be in jail, right? I lived through those bad old days also, and I think the horse you've chosen to ride here is a might too tall.
I'll play. I like to drink (it's one of my many character flaws), but I wised up a while ago and realized that getting popped for a dui wasn't something I could afford on any level, so I don't drive if i've had even one drink as the consequences are just too great. Do I think this is rational? I've used my cell phone while driving, treated the road like a racetrack, and driven home after 24 hour work days, all of which were more irresponsible than having two beers. Which one results in a felony w/o hurting someone else? Why is this the case? Special interests, the end.
Yes, I'm saying that I should have been thrown in a jail for awhile. The view from a tall horse offers some advantages.
Disagree totally - there is an entire industry making money off of DUI laws. Between the states with the huge fines and the different DUI schools and the like it's nuts. A DUI is a 10-20k hit and that is profit for all involved.
Sitting here stone cold sober I can tell you that I absolutely could drive safely at .05, no way you'd even be able to tell. That of course means I wouldn't get pulled over for it either but it also means that arbitrary number is bullshit.
