Calgarypuck Forums - The Unofficial Calgary Flames Fan Community - View Single Post - Victim of deadly crash hated the thought of drunk driving

Russic · 05-05-2015, 10:46 AM

This is a particular sore point for me. My family suffered a huge loss due to drunk driving close to 40 years ago and it remains an extremely vivid pain for everybody. For that reason I am admittedly unreasonable in my viewpoints on drunk driving. I'd love to see the harshest of punishments and then some.

At some point though, I have to recognize that thoughts like that come from a place of anger and not rational thought. While I want to ponder the various complexities of roadside executions, it makes far more sense to ponder a realistic solution.

Technically one would think that harsher sentences are the answer, and that makes total sense. The science however tells us that only works when the punishment is is well understood and consistent. Unfortunately for this particular crime, the drunk person is often not thinking clearly at all. Paired with the fact many drive drunk undetected means punishments can probably get harsher and harsher with very little impact.

We aren't going to develop a way to get drunk and not have a segment of the population turn into brain-dead idiots, so the first part of the equation is out the window. I'd love to see multiple checkstops all over the city at random intervals throughout the year. The cost of that would be quite extensive though, and while I feel it's insane not to budget for it (an entirely biased opinion), the police can only do so much with the resources they're given.

I actually believe the true solution was mentioned earlier – driverless cars. Every year tons of men, women, and children are killed needlessly. If that isn't enough to give our behaviour a 180, I'm not sure what can. Unfortunately, while it's changed over the years, it's still a big problem. People are inherently poor at understanding tragedy until it happens to them, and in that same vein they likely wouldn't support a solution that hammers them with a tax increase until they lose somebody close to them. I think the development of driverless vehicles will arrive well before people change their behaviour enough to eliminate drunk driving.

05-05-2015, 10:46 AM	#41
Russic Dances with Wolves Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Section 304 Exp:	This is a particular sore point for me. My family suffered a huge loss due to drunk driving close to 40 years ago and it remains an extremely vivid pain for everybody. For that reason I am admittedly unreasonable in my viewpoints on drunk driving. I'd love to see the harshest of punishments and then some. At some point though, I have to recognize that thoughts like that come from a place of anger and not rational thought. While I want to ponder the various complexities of roadside executions, it makes far more sense to ponder a realistic solution. Technically one would think that harsher sentences are the answer, and that makes total sense. The science however tells us that only works when the punishment is is well understood and consistent. Unfortunately for this particular crime, the drunk person is often not thinking clearly at all. Paired with the fact many drive drunk undetected means punishments can probably get harsher and harsher with very little impact. We aren't going to develop a way to get drunk and not have a segment of the population turn into brain-dead idiots, so the first part of the equation is out the window. I'd love to see multiple checkstops all over the city at random intervals throughout the year. The cost of that would be quite extensive though, and while I feel it's insane not to budget for it (an entirely biased opinion), the police can only do so much with the resources they're given. I actually believe the true solution was mentioned earlier – driverless cars. Every year tons of men, women, and children are killed needlessly. If that isn't enough to give our behaviour a 180, I'm not sure what can. Unfortunately, while it's changed over the years, it's still a big problem. People are inherently poor at understanding tragedy until it happens to them, and in that same vein they likely wouldn't support a solution that hammers them with a tax increase until they lose somebody close to them. I think the development of driverless vehicles will arrive well before people change their behaviour enough to eliminate drunk driving.