DUI bill dies, no doubt from embarrassment

Yakima Herald,com ^ | 2/15/08 | Yakima Herald Editorial Board (at link)

[elkfersupper]

Finally, common sense prevails in dealing with the state's laws on driving under the influence of liquor and drugs.

A bill steeped in election-year, get-tough-on-crime grandstanding has quietly gone to the burial ground for bad bills in the state Legislature. It failed to make it out of the Senate Transportation Committee before Tuesday's deadline.

Senate Bill 6402 would have required people convicted of a DUI infraction to put fluorescent-yellow license plates on their cars for one year after having their driving privileges restored.

Who knows why overreaching bills even get a hearing in Olympia, as this one did last week before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Maybe it's in the spirit of Shylock's demands for debt repayment of a pound of flesh in Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice."

(Actually, some opponents preferred a "Scarlet Letter" analogy, a reference to another literary classic -- Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel in which the heroine must wear the letter "A" as punishment for adultery.)

The gaudy plates would theoretically warn the motoring public and law enforcement that someone convicted of DUI is on the road, even though that person already has jumped through the hoops demanded by tough state laws and has had driving privileges restored.

That embarrassment factor seems like piling on when DUI offenders can already face jail time, even if for a day, higher insurance rates, mandatory counseling and suspended or restricted driving privileges.

And once those privileges are restored, the state Department of Licensing requires a person to drive only a motor vehicle equipped with an ignition interlock device. That certainly would seem a more effective approach in dealing with post-DUI driving considerations than a license plate that glows in the dark.

You know this legislation overreached when even Mothers Against Drunk Driving declined to support it. They also prefer measures such as interlocks and sobriety checkpoints.

If lawmakers want to ratchet up DUI enforcement, they should have approved the checkpoints that were requested of them by Gov. Chris Gregoire.

This short 60-day session in Olympia has too many pressing issues to waste valuable time on feel-good legislation.

There's a joke in Olympia during sessions that no bill is really dead until the Legislature has adjourned for good. Even then, it's a good idea to allow 24 hours to make sure they don't come back.

This is one bad example of government excess that should stay buried.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins and Bill Lee.

[sig229]

PLEASE, I need that info!

[Diggity]

http://www.sixwise.com/newsletters/05/07/20/the_6_most_common_causes_of_automobile_crashes.htm

[fortunecookie]

Drunk driving causes less deaths then people on cell phones.

Apples and oranges. That doesn't make an argument for drunk driving or against it, for lessening the punishments, or for prosecuting it any less vigorously. Cell phone related vehicular deaths should be prosecuted for their own negligence, not for their frequency compared to drunk driving. The only commonality is that both are 100% preventable.

[elkfersupper]

Apples and oranges. That doesn't make an argument for drunk driving or against it, for lessening the punishments, or for prosecuting it any less vigorously.

Define "drunk".

[M-cubed]

Look- there's a guy thats been arrested for speeding and kills people = silver license plate

Look- there's a family on welfare...sucking the life out of everyone - Gold license plate

Look- there's a guy that’s a member of Free Republic and the vast right wing conspiracy = red-white-blue license plate......... *G*

[Diggity]

Do you think that someone on a cell phone who kills someone should be punished less then someone who had been drinking?

Lost in the statistics are the people who had been drinking and hit by someone else who was not paying attention. I believe any accident with alcohol involved is listed that way whether or not that party was at fault.

Just another example of our government at work. Rather then spend time figuring out how to lower taxes and cutting out waste it chooses to grandstand to try and get support for more money spent on police which will be used for speed traps, swat teams etc.

John

[Diggity]

Bill “one for the road” Moyers had the same question lol.

People who be surprised how little you have to drink to fail that test. I believe 2 beers in one hour will cause you to flunk.

Tons of people go out with their kids to the local pizza place and have a couple of beers or a glass of wine and are legally drunk but have no idea of it.

John

[Diggity]

Yeah, have one with a dunce hat on it if you voted democratic. LOL

John

[TXnMA]

From the linked article"

"3. Drunk Driving

In 2004, an estimated 16,654 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes, according to NHTSA. This is an average of one death almost every half-hour. Drunk drivers were responsible for 30 percent of all fatal crashes during the week in 2003, but this percentage rose significantly over the weekends, during which 53 percent of fatal crashes were alcohol-related."

...and you guys have the gall to defend that?

[TXnMA]

You...

[BerryDingle]

One of the benefits of being an illegal. No license, no registration, no insurance, no real ID.

[Babu]

Senate Bill 6402 would have required people convicted of a DUI infraction to put fluorescent-yellow license plates on their cars

A better idea would be to require all Libs to put fluorescent-yellow license plates on their cars and a fluorescent-yellow scarf around their friggin necks.

[gracesdad]

“Okay, so technically I’d put an F on fornicators, not an A. But “The Scarlet F,” you must admit, has far less cachet.”

Guess I’m a fornicator. Doesn’t matter to me. We’ve been married for almost 29 years now.

[fortunecookie]

Yes, that is the argument. The law sets a limit. We may chose to argue with it, disagree, disregard, fight to change it. Reading the accounts, or knowing the details first hand (sadly), of accidents with fatalities, the levels measured and reported at the scene exceed by no small amount the .08 level or the former .10 level. Define it? Impairment. Beyond levels measured to be acceptable for carrying out of regular activities like driving, working, talking, walking without serious impairment. Slurred speech, loss of balance, reduced inhibitions, confusion. We can argue semantics all night. But for some, they continue to drink beyond what is known to be safe regarding impairment, and subsequent drinks further impair that judgement, and then get in the car and think they can drive. Does someone texting while driving or applying makeup while driving experience similar impairment? Yes.

[SamAdams76]

Look - there's a disgusting drunk who causes accidents and kills people! Well it's a dumb idea for many reasons and your statement illustrates one of them. The fact is that many "drunk drivers" were not swerving on the road, causing accidents and killing people. Many of them had the misfortune to run into a roadblock after having had a couple of drinks. They weren't anymore of a menace than somebody changing the station on the radio or yakking on a cellphone but because they gave an honest answer to the cop at the roadblock, they got pulled in for a DUI.

Here is some advice for anybody having a glass of wine at dinner or a beer. If you are stopped at a roadblock and a policeman asks you if you have been drinking, say no. As soon as you admit you even had one drink, the policeman is required to pull you out of the car for a sobriety test and even if you pass it with flying colors, they are still obligated to bring you in under the lesser charge (but still serious) of OUI and have your car towed for the "public safety" out of fear that if they let you go, the department might get a lawsuit if you have an accident later on - even if it has nothing to do with the drink you had.

In today's political charged climate, only a complete teetotaler is immune from getting a DUI. Having just one drink puts you at risk of a DUI or OUI and as a result, you are lumped in with those crazy drunks who blow .20 and drive themselves into trees.

[fortunecookie]

Negligent vehicular homicide is homicide. I think by saying apples and oranges, I was pointing out that there should be no 'comparison'. Of course someone texting or talking and causing an accident should be prosecuted. Someone who had been drinking (and I might add not impaired) and then hit by someone not paying attention, their having had something to drink is irrelevant to the fact they were hit by someone else. I'm not sure I agree that any accident with alcohol is always listed that way. Impairment, it's measurable and definable and something each of us should take our own responsibility for. And that goes for cell phone use, and other distractions while driving. But if one can stop oneself from being impaired, shouldn't one try? Whether that means having 2 drinks after work instead of several, or muting the cell phone or pulling off to answer it, isn't that a better way?

I've heard the argument from someone who says he can drink twice as much as someone else before he 'feels' impairment. Often his speech is slurred while he is making this argument. I've witnessed a neighbor rear end a car because she was texting. All preventable.

I agree there is goverment waste and grandstanding and special interests and that is a waste.

[an amused spectator]

And yet, the vast majority of DUIs involve neither accidents nor deaths. Many don't even involve "drunkenness," at least not how most adults understand it.

Revenooers...

[Trailerpark Badass]

"Alcohol-related?"

[mmichaels1970]

There’s already a similar law in Ohio. Bright yellow plates with red lettering. I know somebody who put magnets on their original plates and stuck them over top when they were parked at work to avoid getting humiliated and possibly fired.

[modican]

an estimated 16,654 people were killed...... 53 percent of fatal crashes were alcohol-related

..from Texas Piney Woods -- back home in God's Country...

So you better drive careful, I know these Texas woods, late at night, no choice but to drive home after a few drinks with some Friends next town over.
And don't be too scared of statistical numbers, they don't tell always the whole story.
There are ~30000 Suicides per year in the USA. You don't want to add 16654 to that number.