A problem we could fix
The best friend of my 19-year-old grandson was killed last month. It was a senseless death, as are most deaths of teenagers. But he died needlessly, killed by a man driving the wrong way on a four-lane highway with a wide median.
The driver of the other car was (pause for dramatic effect) … drunk.
My grandson’s friend was one of more than an estimated 250 victims of drunk drivers on that one day – February 19, 2023. Stop. Let that sink in.
Lives, lost, 250 of them, snuffed out because another human being decided to operate a vehicle while being over the legal limit of state-mandated. alcohol-blood content.
As you are reading this – right about NOW! – another person, one with a family and friends who love them… just died. Less than six minutes from when you read that last sentence, another living, breathing human being will be dead by a similar fate.
These are innocent victims, people with co-workers who depend on them and look up to them; maybe it will be a teacher who molds young lives, or an entrepreneur who is putting people to work to serve a public need.
Another five to six minutes… another senseless death, maybe this time, a beloved friend, or4 a member of your family.
Every 360 seconds, give or take, another person dies on the highways of this country.
Sad? Of course, it’s sad. The young man was a month away from graduating trade school and beginning his after-school life. He had his heart set on being a diesel mechanic
This is an all-too-real tragedy, one compounded by the fact this country could virtually stop the slaughter within a relatively short period of time, a year, maybe two.
What? Impossible! That’s what you are thinking. But it is possible to cut the death total by 80-90 percent. Sadly, that won’t happen because our politicians, our leaders, don’t have the intestinal fortitude – the GUTS – to make one, single, tough choice: Toughen up the DUI laws so that being under the influence and driving a vehicle is no longer a viable option.
The suggested multi-tiered solution is draconian, seemingly unreasonable, and certainly not compassionate in the least. But it is so simple; positive effects on reducing unnecessary deaths would be the end result.
For the first offense DUI, a convicted offender:
Has his/her vehicle confiscated and sold at auction, with proceeds to an ad campaign informing the public of the dangers and penalties for DUI offenses and other areas in the penalty phases. OR, loss of unrestricted driver’s license for two years. (Optional, depending on individual family circumstances, offenders have to utilize an onboard breathalyzer (including cost to install and monthly fee) on any vehicle driven with zero alcohol content tolerance.) Assessed $10,000 fine.
Again, depending on circumstances, sentenced to six months in jail; each offender charged a daily maintenance fee for prisoner upkeep, paid for by a minimal wage for community improvement projects, i.e., environmental projects, cleaning up areas in the community, or working to clean up hospital emergency rooms.
Weekly alcohol/drug counseling sessions. Second offense for DUI:
Vehicle confiscated and sold at auction, etc.
Assessed $50,000 fine. Sentenced to two years in jail; daily upkeep charge applies.
Permanent loss of driver’s license.
As with any law, any restraint on the inclination of humans to behave badly, there will be those that rebel, who do not conform to law. But, for the most part, as soon as the word gets around, cars are confiscated, harsh penalties assessed and folks get serious jail time, the statistics will flip-lop quickly.
I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired of reading about the deaths of people I don’t know dying needlessly at the whim of some thoughtless and uncaring fumble-brained drunk who decided to drive a vehicle.
The stupidity of the current average annual death total, the malignant, blind-eye approach of elected leaders and the judicial system in general hit home several weeks ago when I saw my grandson devastated by the death of his childhood friend.
My first thought: Thank God my grandson was not in the car.
My second thought: This didn’t have to happen; we allow it to happen by not taking this societal problem seriously and fixing it.
Ohhhhhhh. Another six minutes. Another useless death.
How long until a person you know, that you love, is one of those 250 that die every day, killed by a drunk driver?
If you could wave a magic wand and fix this problem, would you? What would you do?
I remember it like yesterday…
June 25, 1994
I was publisher of a newspaper in Las Cruces, N.M., when a story about the deaths of a father and two infant sons hit our front page.
A teenager hit the father and sons after driving his car through a stop sign. Drunk and having just left his 19th birthday party, he ignored a crosswalk where the man was pushing his twin sons in a double-stroller.
The driver was white; the three dead citizens were Hispanic. (No cultural statements, just facts.)
At the trial, the white judge sentenced the teenager to three years in jail, saying, “One family has been devastated; I hesitate to make it two destroyed families.”
That judge succinctly answered the ageold question: How much is a human life worth?
A year. According to that judge in his ruling, a human life is worth a year… less with time off for good behavior,
Drunk drivers kill. We have the power to reduce the unacceptable death rate dramatically.
But do we have the will to do so?