First drunk driving penalty...15 years no drivers license..No exceptions.$25,000 fine...If you’re 21 I think you would think twice before driving with alcohol..Make the punishment this extreme, it’s the only thing which would work..

Some people in NM are well into double digit DUI arrests.

Confiscating the cars works a little better. Most chronic drunks can't scrape together the money for another jalopy---cuts too far into their drinking budgets.

When they're convicted of vehicular homicide, the alcohol should add years to the sentence, not subtract from it the way it's done now.

These two guys at the corner were talking about their previous DUI convictions. One guy had six and the other guy had five. And they were sitting at a bar drinking - before going to court ordered rehab! Yeah they're not harsh enough if you ask me. If you're going to drink, get an Uber car or take a taxi, or find somewhere to spend the night. Don't put your life or someone else' life at serious risk!

DUI costs around $10K in total (in fees/fines, i.e. not including increased insurance rates), you lose your license entirely (save for perhaps driving to AA/Probation/Alcohol Ed meetings) for 6 months or a year, you have to pay to attend an Alcohol Ed class which is usually about 10 x 2 hour meetings long. Oh, and you get to pay to sign up to do community service. And you get to pay to sign up for probation. And you are barred from driving w/ANY amount of alcohol in your system for like 3 years, else it's straight to jail on a probation violation.

Also, the insurance companies consider a DUI to be a license to thoroughly violate your wallet for YEARS ... on top of all the fines/fees involved. Not to mention MANY people have lost their jobs over it (not just people who drive for a living), and some even have their homeowners insurance premiums go up over a DUI.

Believe me, I got one the night before my College Graduation in 1991 (and the penalties have just gotten worse since), and I'm here to tell you ... a DUI is NO slap on the wrist, folks. It's a pretty freaking major disaster, and can really mess up one's life. And that's when nobody even gets hurt. You get in an accident w/injuries or heaven forbid, a death? Sheeee-it. You are in a huge world of trouble (as you should be). This woman will be doing at least 10 years of hard time.

OTOH, violating traffic laws (speeding, stop sign/signal blowing for instance), driving with a phone up against your ear (or even freaking TEXTING), eating, putting on makeup, driving while very tired ... we give all these major dangers/distractions nothing more than a slap on the wrist (while it's highly dangerous and irresponsible to drive while very tired, in fact, there's no penalty at all ... unless the person is injured in the accident they cause by falling asleep at the wheel).

Even tickets for speeding WILDLY over the speed limit or reckless driving will cost you very, very little in comparison to a DUI. But these actions are literally just as dangerous to others as DUI is.

Personally, I find it to be, shall I say, of 'questionable fairness' that DUI is singled out as basically the one thing that one can do behind that wheel that has these massive and potentially life-shattering penalties (even when nobody is hurt), while every OTHER thing people do that puts other people into (nearly, or even as much) danger is (relatively-speaking) a slap on the wrist.

but it all comes down to how they are applied...

We've all seen some first-timers get the book thrown at them, and some multiple offenders only get jail time after arrest #10...

Even in places where drunk driving penalties are harsh, offenders are sometimes given much more lenient probation or suspended sentences than in other places.

I agree with you on one thing - the penalty should be for impaired driving, not necessarily drunk driving. Texting while driving is just as dangerous as driving while blitzed and should be treated as such.

I recall a news broadcast several years ago when I lived in Chicago. A reporter was asking local drivers what they thought about a proposed ordinance to prohibit driving while talking on a cell phone. One of the douchebags she interviewed said that he'd drive while on the phone, law or no law, because "business is business." In fact, he indicated that he'd pass along the cost of whatever tickets he got to his customers - all part of the cost of doing business, he said. A lot of people still don't think driving while distracted is such a bad thing.

She killed 6 people breaking not just DUI laws but also those re: speed limit and driving on the wrong side of the hwy. That puts her in a category I'd reserve for gun nuts who shoot up schools and other homegrown terrorists.

trying to show off their manly engines.. Not even close..

Statistics of damage is just horrendous..
http://www.madd.org/drunk-driving/about/drunk-driving-statistics.html

Along with the prevailing conditions at hand.

Compare a person who's a 'drinker' (i.e. someone w/a good-size tolerance to alcohol), who's at exactly .08% (an experienced drinker would really not be impaired by to any real degree), driving home one mile on deserted suburban streets, to the place where he's lived for years (hence well knows the route) from the local tavern, who's doing nothing else wrong, is obeying the speed limit, but who gets nabbed 1/2 block from his house ... because cops were sitting around watching the tavern and just made up a reason to pull the guy over ... who then passes the roadside tests w/flying colors but still gets a breathalyzer stuck in his mouth because the cops 'smelled alcohol' and they didn't have to 'prove' that they had a real 'reason' to insist on a BA test ... because the result of the test is considered de-facto 'proof' that the test was 'called for'.

... to someone darting in and out through a bunch of traffic, at night, in the rain, perhaps racing someone else, doing speeds of 100+mph.

You're right, there is no comparison in that case ... the speeder is FAR more dangerous in those conditions than the 'drunk driver'. But the speeder would get like 1/50th of the penalty when considered overall.

To me, that's not really 'just'.

A large percentage of DUI arrests are of suspects who don't have a valid license anyway. License suspensions don't matter, and financial penalties are only of moderate help.

I generally don't agree with zero tolerance rules, but this is an area where I do support them. 1st offense and you spend 30 days in jail (mandatory, no waivers, suspensions, or reductions) while your car gets crushed. 2nd offense and you spend a year in jail (again, no waivers, suspensions, or reductions). And on from there. No diversion programs, no work release programs, no alternative treatment programs (treatment while incarcerated should be mandatory).

I've now lost three good friends to drunks who shouldn't have been behind the wheel, two of whom didn't even have licenses. All three had previous DUI convictions, and but only one had spent any real time in jail for it (that one guy had SEVEN DUI convictions and had spent three months in jail...total).

I don't believe that our justice system should be punitive. I am a firm believer that jails should serve two purposes in society. First, they should protect society from those who would actively harm us. Second, they should do whatever is possible to rehabilitate the offender so that they no longer qualify under the first purpose. But at the same time, I do believe that ineffective justice isn't justice at all. License suspensions and fines don't protect society from those who would do it harm, and they don't rehabilitate the offenders. This is one subject where mandatory prison terms may be the only thing that really works. Offenders need to understand that a DUI arrest is an event that will unavoidably alter their life, and not something that can be laughed off over a few more beers with friends.

That's one of the effects of being drunk.

She was driving that fast and going the wrong way on a freeway. If it had been me I'd have been screaming for her to stop. Of course she killed them and we can't ask. And the other four people in the car she creamed. What a nightmare. I know that interchange very well but I can't imagine it was at all busy at 4:30 am on Sunday morning so that's probably how she was able to go the wrong way on two different freeways. The cops are normally out in force that time of night/day it's just an unhappy coincidence that none saw her and perhaps could have stopped her. I'm pretty sure they are going to throw the book at her.

a bunch of time in the fast (inside) lane, especially at night. A drunk going the wrong way is going to most likely be in that one thinking they are in the slow lane and will likely be driving without lights.

A drunk was going the wrong way down a four-lane highway, withouts lights, at 8:30 p.m. He hit my brother head-on. My brother's best friend died. My brother, the driver, spent about three weeks in a coma and two years in rehab. He is sixty-two now, and has suffered lasting effects from the accident.

What happened to the driver? Nothing, basically. He had a bit of damage to the front of his pickup, and he broke a couple of bones in one of his feet. BTW, he was driving with no insurance and a suspended driver's license, because he had other drunk driving tickets. Later, my brother met a middle-aged woman who had had a similar accident with the same drunk. She was in a wheelchair.

Our state did not have implied consent laws at that time. The drunk tried to sue the hospital that took a test measuring his blood alcohol "without his knowledge or consent." The orthopedic doctor who helped my brother had banded together with other doctors, who had a war chest to fight such suits. Eventually, the law was changed. My brother was one of the people who wrote a letter that was read into the state record when the law was changed. It helped him feel that his friend's death had not been entirely for nothing.

I have never been able to take even one drink and get behind the wheel. Never, not under any circumstances.

WTF.

If you're in the front passenger's seat, you could grab the wheel, but you can't reach the pedals. Grabbing the wheel at 100+ mph is a ticket to all kinds of badness.

If they were awake and aware, that would be a hell of an awful way to go...

Got lucky. Called it in.

It was still a time where if you killed someone driving, you had better be drunk. This drunk woman, killed 2 guys on bikes. She hit them from behind, stopped at the KMart that was close to the scene to pull the bikes tire out from under her car. She said she would have called for help, but KMart was closed. Kmart at that time had pay phones outside the store. The only reason she got caught was some other guys on bikes who were with the 2 that got killed identified her as she was driving back. She got probation ONLY. This was sometime in the early 80's.

A drunk got onto I-264 at the Virginia Beach ocean front going the wrong way and drove head on into a car carrying a woman in labor to the hospital. Everyone was killed.

Then again, being impaired, there could be giant signs that say 'YOU'RE GOING THE WRONG WAY FUCK-O' and it still wouldn't register.

Sad that we don't yet have some sort of safety interlock for ALL vehicles that test galvanic skin response for alcohol, or some similar technology, just refuse to start if the person is ripped. A brief nystagamus test or something. We've got cars that can warn you if you're nodding off now...

One of the most selfish ways to go about it too.

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....until the morning they woke up and heard a black guy was in the White House.

Many of the wrecks (I worked nights because you got more and better trauma) involved alcohol. Perhaps 10% or so might have had some other issue, whether suicide, sickness, etc.

I base this on what I heard from them, because at that point they are victims as well.

The rest are just lousy drunks. The single most frequent thing I heard from them when one was left alive (which, more often than not, was the impaired driver when there were fatalities ) was a complaint that "the other car was in my lane".

Road markers made of 12' tall flaming Jesus Christ Statue in the road wouldn't have made a bit of difference. That's why highways are built with barriers between the oncoming lanes where practical. And even then some manage to get over, under, around, or through it to kill or hurt someone.

Lousy drunks.

Who goes that fast when drunk? I don't drink, haven't for 20 years. But back when I was younger I got behind the wheel more than once when I should not have. I am not proud of it. Thank God I never had an accident. That said, when I did drive drunk I was scared, extra cautious, and in no shape to drive fast. The speed is just really odd.

Presumably, you had some sense of how much you'd had to drink. You also probably knew, to some extent, how impaired your ability to drive was. Some people have no such sense, and many of those who do lose it once they cross a certain threshold of inebriation.

I've often wondered if bars could be enabled to collect the car keys of anyone consuming drinks, and to withhold them until a designated driver passes a breathalyzer test.

Well, teenagers for one huge example....

It was somewhere after 2:00 and he was all over the road. He had poor speed control and seemed to wake up when he bumped something, ran onto the shoulder, corrected, then started veering again. I had to do over 80 to catch up and read his plate to the dispatcher. I don't know if he thought he was good enough to drive on the highway or if he just had a heavy foot in that state.

I should also point out that this is a responsible parent, given the fact that she gave birth to a girl less than a month ago.

So, she was doing what all great moms do at 4 in the morning.

Lock her up for life, which is more than her victims got, and let her child grow up visiting her in prison.

On highways! I don't understand how they even get on the highway the wrong way. There used to be so many drunks running into cop cars on the side of the road working accidents and whatnot that a back up fire truck is now parked as a buffer.

So sad. Just tragic.

I have a good friend who recently went back on the wagon. He can NOT drink in moderation. He has downed a dozen beers by noon, and he got a DUI with an extremely HIGH lvl of alcohol in his blood. He continues to drive. He recently quit drinking again; but losing your license is NOT working with drunken drivers. It's tragic, but murder is murder. The dead don't give a shit if you didn't mean to kill them.

if not will she lose her license forever ?

I think. It's possible she could get life w/o but I don't know. It's going to depend on the prosecutor.

a fatality instead of injuries though.

by installing a Doppler radar that will warn me about wrong-way cars ahead of time so I can get out of the way!

affluenza defense can't be used. Six people killed and six families will never be the same again.

All this crap will be a thing of the past.

Girls, alcohol and speed never end well. One of the victims was her sister who was in the front seat with her. I have no sympathy for this lady because she made a choice to get behind that wheel but her family will now have to bury a daughter and watch the other one go through a hell that she justly deserves. She clearly got on the wrong ramp of the Highway and never figured it out. A head on collision is survivable at lower speeds but once you get over 50 miles an hour the kinetic energy is just to great and your organs take a tremendous beating even if you are seat belted in and the car has multiple airbags.

Why single out one gender, given the Texas case I linked in OP?

I singled it out because alcohol has a quicker effect on females because they are lighter and they also do not have an enzyme in their stomach that starts to breakdown alcohol before it gets in the blood stream. Secondly most but not all women do not truly understand how to handle a car going at a high rate of speed. Several years ago we had a accident where a young lady and 3 of her friends were killed in a car accident that involved a BMW, alcohol, speed and a tree. She left a party sped down the road and lost control of the car. The tree split the car in half. I am not excusing boys or their behavior behind the wheel at all.

18 year old, suspected of being drunk, going the wrong way on a divided highway, Killed one and injured two in the oncoming car.

http://www.abc12.com/story/24681928/alcohol-believed-to-be-involved-in-deadly-wrong-way-crash-on-us-23


http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/2014/02/woman_who_died_in_mundy_townsh.html

I'm NO hard-ass when it comes to prison terms, but this is beyond the pale. . . .

They really are going to put her under the prison, or try. 6 million dollar bail.



http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/02/13/california-freeway-crash-murder/5467641/