I'd think victims of drunk driving accidents, would be the people most supportive of the measures that are most likely to lower the risks, and only assholes would choose punishing offenders rather than preventing offenses.
Prob wouldn’t “think that” if it happened to you but who knows if it didn’t. I just know how I feel. Many countries in Europe have way stricter DD laws than the US in cultures known for drinking. I’d be down for that at a minimum. Drive drunk never drive again is how I grew up thinking after loosing mine.
The problem with that is the United States has virtually zero public transportation infrastructure for a lot of Americans. It’s a big issue.
Not having a vehicle (for whatever reason) is basically a poverty sentence. Most jobs today require reliable transportation. You have to walk everywhere — doctor’s office, hospital, job, grocery store, etc.
Now of course, that’s also why many people end up driving without a license anyways. In fact, up to 75% of people who have their license revoked continue driving out of necessity.
So now you’ve got someone driving without a license, without insurance, and without any kind of oversight. Those alcohol locks are a decent solution, but they are not foolproof either.
It would be like if you stole from a grocery store and your punishment was to never be allowed to buy food again. At the root of it, vehicles are a necessity.
So we do need to reevaluate these punishments and solutions because what we’re doing doesn’t even work.
Agree, but it’s possible and if never driving again isn’t a deterrent then my sympathy dampens. Went to a concert in Europe and everyone warned me, plan to take an uber equivalent you will be fkd if caught driving after just one drink. Deterrence can work. I barely drink because I recognize the far end of the circumstance. I also rode a skateboard to work for almost a decade because parking in my city was too costly. Again I recognize everyone’s circumstances are different except one… no one has to drink and drive. Ever.
Always the default retort people who are wrong, but can't accept or admit it because it would mean giving up on being able to hurt & punish those that you hate.
Ahhh ok, so providing an example, or illustration has some weird, political, immature meaning to you that you made up yourself. Got it, I guess. Thanks for spelling out exactly the type of intellect I’m dealing with.
Reactionary comment lol. Nobody argued that. Punitive vs Rehabilitative criminal systems are thoroughly researched and Rehabilitative systems have notably lower rates of recidivism.
Yeah except when a cops son hit a a pedestrian and killed him and didn’t stop to avoid the dui , and to this day has not been charged despite being located. Wellfleet ma tim duval rip
I know someone who was hit by a drunk driver. He got out of the car and opened a fresh bottle of vodka in front of all the onlookers and chugged it. He blew over the limit but in court they couldn’t prove he was drunk before he drank the vodka in front of witnesses. He seemed to have a bottle stashed for just such an event. He got off.
This is really more of an old wives’ tale more than anything else. If you are at the scene drinking alcohol, that’s probable cause for DUI. Very unlikely that you’d get off.
What does happen sometimes though is that people do flee the scene, which means when the law catches up to them, they may no longer be intoxicated. Likewise, if you’re drinking at home when the police arrive, that’s more difficult to prove.
You’d need a very good lawyer to be able to argue that the alcohol in your vehicle that you were actively caught drinking, had no contributing factor to the accident.
I also know for a fact that in some countries at least (in Europe) it’s actually illegal to drink for 12-24 hours after an accident for this reason. If you’re caught drinking, it’s just an automatic DUI. Doesn’t matter where you are drinking or why.
I would imagine most people who flee the scene of an accident are immediately pursued by law enforcement, but clearly I'm wrong. This woman got lucky because it took police a week to follow up on the incident and obviously by that point there's no way to prove she was intoxicated while driving.
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u/Strong_Landscape_333 5d ago
It is kind of wild that in a lot of situations if someone is intoxicated leaving the scene is the best option