Drunk Driving Deaths

Does anyone here still believe that drunk drivers killing someone is “ just and accident”?

Sadly, due to personal experience I have learned that most people convicted of drunk driving, reoffend and, most drunk drivers who kill someone have already been arrested for drunk driving before.

The person who killed my son was 21 years old.
He was arrested almost 3 months after the crime and was out on bail within 3 hours. Bail was set at $50,000.00 so for $5,000.00 he was out.
It has been over a year and he still has a drivers license. Hopefully December will find him convicted. There is no doubt he will go to prison. There is overwhelming evidence against him.
His sentence can been anywhere from 10 years to life.

For the last year, I have had to see that person in my community. I hear about him drinking with his friends at parties. Small town life I suppose. He is next to me at stop lights, I’ve seen him in restaurants. He just stares at me.

I’m not going to get into what this loss has caused our family, myself. Anyone who has lost a child knows, but I wanted to bring it to peoples attention, that punishment does not fit the crime in cases of drunk driving.
Everyone is fully aware that drinking and driving is illegal. Everyone knows. Yet still this is a crime that the less of a penalty, the higher the recidivism. Every day, they estimate 300,000 drunk drivers on the road.

Please don’t drink and drive. And please vote for stiff penalties when you have the opportunity.

This ruins people’s lives.

( I haves edited this to take out some searchable information.)

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I’m really sorry about the loss of your son. May he Rest In Peace.

About 10 years ago, we lived not far from Logan Airport, near the ocean. A man about 5 minutes away from us was suspended and threatening to hang himself if he didn’t get his driver’s license reinstated.

His offense? NINE drunk driving convictions in the Commonwealth. I thought three earned revocation.

There is what figuratively is called a Cinderella license, but those appealing for it are at the mercy of the courts. They need proof that not being allowed to drive will be (usually a financial) hardship for them, and if the court agrees, they issue a license with permitting hours around commuting time to & from a job.

This freak who threatened to hang himself had the same generous access to public transit everyone in that small town did. There was even a ferry service into Boston.

I hope the judge cited his address being near a hardware store & told him to buy the rope. Driving drunk by a first time offender who learns his lesson is one thing, but NINE?!

They not only shouldn’t drive but should be serving time.

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I guess my point is, a first time offender can have a 79% chance of reoffending if their penalty is not substantial depending on where the live. That is the highest,
But studies do show that the stiffer the penalty, the less chance of reoffending.

I appreciate the sentiment. Thank you.

I am so very sorry for your loss and will be thinking of you and your family today and sending you peaceful vibes. May the memory of your son sooth your soul.

Thank you for sharing this.

It is an important message in these times as we evaluate the ongoing Covid risks with other risks that have long permeated our daily lives.

Our cultural attitude has come a long way WRT DUI. Still a lot more work to do as other substances are also impairing drivers and creating a hazard on the roadways.

Will hope for a just outcome through the courts.

I’m so sorry about the loss of your son.

My brother was killed in an accident; my mom was never the same again.

I hope he gets the maximum sentence. I also hope this haunts him for the rest of his life.

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This is very sad, and I’m sorry for your loss.

Given the driver’s brazen post-accident behavior over the last year, I hope you or the prosecutor have the opportunity to incorporate this into your sentencing hearing statements to impact the length of incarceration.

In jersey the max is 20 years.

Hopefully he gets that and more in your state.

At least 20 to think about what he actually did (deprive the life of your son through gross negligence)

Allan

Thank you for the thoughts.

What do you guys think about the fact that light penalties, don’t seem to curb the behavior?

I’m very sorry for your loss. I will admit as a young adult I did drink and drive. But I was never reckless and never drove totally drunk. That doesn’t excuse me, I realize that. But I kept myself in check for the most part.

I am very familiar with the type of person you’re talking about. It’s more about the person than it is the drinking and driving. If you have no moral compass then you’re liable to do anything that pleases you. Reaching out to these people will do you no good. I’m all too familiar with it.

How socially acceptable is drinking even a small amount and driving?

I’ve been staggered when in America at the condition some people are happy to drive in.

Maybe I hang about in the wrong circles, but in the UK if you said you were driving after even a single drink you would be a bit of a pariah.

Even my chavvy mates don’t do it.

My sincerest condolences for you loss brother. I hope that piece of garbage gets life for what he did.

My sister was hit head on by a drunk driver about five years ago. Thankfully she survived but it shattered every bone in her right foot and she suffered compound fractures in both her right arm and right leg. It also cracked her pelvis in two different places. It took a year’s worth of surgeries and physical therapy until she could walk again.

She’s also developed some issues from the wreck that has cropped up in recent years. She has short term memory loss issues and she has very little control of her emotional state anymore; she suffered severe head trauma during the wreck. The lady that hit her only got five years.

It really depends on the locale. Having lived in a rural area of the south my entire life people generally don’t bat an eye on driving under the influence until they see you literally face plant out of the vehicle. Only then will they take your keys.

I think people are more tolerant of it here (even though they shouldn’t tolerate it at all) because of the distance from say a bar back to your house. The closest bar to my “community” (if you can even call it that; houses are generally half a mile to a mile apart) is about an hour drive away. You can’t walk to people’s houses drunk most of the time due to distance. So people stupidly get in their cars and drive from place to place. Without designating a sober driver. They’ll all be equally drunk and drive around.

Unfortunately I was guilty of driving under the influence frequently back when I was younger. Thankfully I never wrecked or hurt anyone. But after what happened to my sister… seeing her in that hospital bed with gashes across her face and the compound fractures… right then I swore that I would never drive under the influence again. Because I didn’t want to do that to some other man’s sister, or wife, parents, or kids. I haven’t driven inebriated since that day.

I don’t even really drink anymore. But when I do, I only do it at a place where I can sleep at. Like my house or my friend’s houses.

Is Uber not a thing?

Not around here.

I work in a town of 15,000 (about a 30 minute drive away) and they don’t even have any Uber service. DoorDash is a very recent thing; within the last six months.

My entire county is smaller than that. The county has about 7,000 people in it. There’s just not a market or a demand for ride services unfortunately. We don’t even have door dash services here.

South Central Mississippi is very sparsely populated. Most of the state’s population live in the north east, gulf coast, or the biggest cities, like Jackson or Hattiesburg. Once you get outside of those areas the state is really rural. It’s not Wyoming rural, but it’s not urbanized at all outside of a few key areas.

Fair enough, easy to judge living in a city with public transport and lots of travel options but the circumstances are different.

When I took a trip to New York City my jaw absolutely dropped. The idea of getting on an underground train and going from place to place blew my mind even more than the towering buildings did.

I’m also used to everyone owning a car. Even the poorest people here usually own a car. It’s something from the early 1990s and it’s falling apart, but they have one. When our tour guide told us that his wife had never owned a car and that he hadn’t owned one in five years, we all kind of freaked out. Because without a car you aren’t doing anything here where I’m from.

I live in London, so trains over and above ground are a part of everyday life.

But I have been in cities on the US and been drinking with people who then drive home when they can barely walk.

Don’t the police do anything?

In the run up to Xmas around here they will breathalise anyone they pull over. One strike and you lose your license and your insurance will be a nightmare.

Hell half of the police drive drunk on their off hours.

A guy I graduated with totaled his truck out. Him and another cop got off duty, went to some guys house, got drunk as ■■■■■ and then went home. He ended up totaling his truck in front of my best friends house. Ran it off the road and smashed a tree doing 50.

Funny story, he nor the other cop didn’t lose their job and they weren’t even reprimanded. They pretty much swept it under the rug and his excuse was he lost traction. Not the only time that’s happened either. Always swept under the rug.

Alcoholics makes me sick. They are the most vile obnoxious people I have ever met. The first thing I thought of, when reading the op, was how much I would love to destroy that person’s life that took away a sons life. But I digress because reading the op I see how bigger a father they are for taking this situation with grace and self control. To the point of the op you are correct there should be much stiffer penalties. I think alcoholics get off very easy and show very little remorse for their actions.

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