Looking back
DWI law gets an update
DID YOU ever wonder how somebody makes the paper with a 20th DWI? Somewhere down the line, you’d think, a judge should have thrown the book at him for No. 19. Or even earlier at No. 8.
How in the world does somebody get 20-plus Driving While Intoxicated (or Driving Under the Influence, which refers to drivers younger than 21) tickets/arrests/convictions?
Some of it can be explained as part of the modern American culture of dismissing drunkenness a bit too easily. It’s not much in vogue anymore, but our parents were entertained by Dean Martin and Foster Brooks. (Sometimes in the same sketch.)
And even today you can see Otis unlock his own cell nightly on “The Andy Griffith Show.” It wasn’t until the 1980s that MADD & Co. got powerful enough to make state lawmakers take notice.
But racking up DWIs is also a legal problem. In some states, a person can plead guilty to a DWI-first offense in May, get another ticket (or crash) in June, and plead guilty to another DWI-first offense. There are instances of people pleading several times to DWI-1.
There’s also the problem of states allowing DWI tickets to drop off a perp’s rap sheet after so many years. In Arkansas, it’s five years.
Now there’s a bill before the Arkansas General Assembly that would make that 10 years. For all the news the Stand Your Ground and the no-exception-for-rape anti-abortion bills in the Legislature, House Bill 1062 might have more impact for Arkansans.
The bill by Lanny Fite (R-Benton) has already made it through the House, according to our story by John Moritz, and could go before the Senate, and to the governor, any day. According to our story, even Louisiana—Louisiana!—has a look-back period of 10 years. And in that state, you can get daiquiris handed to you in a drive-through. Handed to the driver. With a straw. (We had to explain to a lady on her first trip to New Orleans why all those houses had refrigerators on the porches. Hint: It was where the adults kept the beer.)
Texas has a lifetime look-back law for Driving While Intoxicated. In this one case, and maybe only in this one case, Texas is doing something smarter than Arkansas.
Consider this legislation a good piece of governing in a session with its fair share of bad bills. Let’s get these people off our roads. Some of us have kids out there.