Quote:
Originally Posted by Ice
The current fines/punishment are not enough. The drunk driver who hit me was immediately arrested at the scene. It was his 9th arrest, he had only been out of jail for less than 60 days serving time for his last DUI conviction. His license was suspended but he didn't care, he put his truck in his girlfriends name to get it registered and drove drunk without a license. On that day he hit three cars and three high school students crossing the street walking home from school. In all he sent seven of us to the hospital. Even after all that the maximum sentence he could receive is four years because he didn't kill anyone. Give him time, he will. He only served 18 months of his 4 year sentence. I'm sure he's still out there drunk driving unless his 10th arrest interupts his life again.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Ice
I think they need to find a way to give these drunk drivers a punishment that affects them for the rest of their life. We hear about the numbers of people killed by drunk drivers because that's the marquee number. While I count my blessings every day that I wasn't killed that day, it really pisses me off that Manuel Raul Amavisca walked away that day with no injuries but me and the other people he took out that day will be dealing with the affects of his "mistake" for the rest of our lives. Considering what could've happened we all got off pretty easy injury-wise, it could've been way worse, but I know that I'm still dealing with my injuries from an accident in 1994 yet he's probably fine.
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I think a lot of the problem as well is not so much the punishments but the way they are handed out. It seems way too often people with DUI's are able to plea (in the states) and bargain the charges down so that they end up without facing the full punishment that they should.
Also as shown in the example above many of these people will drive whether they have a suspended license or not.
Punishments of throwing repeat offenders in jail for a long time may work in getting them off the street so that they can't repeat the offense but as a deterent themselves they don't seem like they work now no matter what the cost to the driver and even if they were strong as can be there is no evidence that they would stop drunks.
I have no problem with upping the punishments as I think it is deserved but lets not pretend as though it will do much to stop DUI's.