I'm so tired of seeing some drunk driver on the news who has had 3 or 4 DUIs, and killed some innocent victim. When is enough enough? These fools will keep driving drunk, license or no license, as long as they are free. I say put them in prison for a minimum of 5 years on their second offense. If they kill someone, then obviously they should get at least 20 years in prison. Fear of prison might be the only way to detour some of these people from driving drunk. Even if it doesn't stop them, then at least they will be off the streets for a few years, and not killing anyone. One in four traffic deaths in Texas are from someone drunk driving. The worst part is that the drunk is usually the one who lives. Why can't we have much stricter laws? Do you agree with me on this?
Yep. I lost my niece a few years ago to a drunk driver and it changed me forever. I think the answer though is the state needs to do a better job of guiding local cities to do better community planning where entertainment is zoned better to have a higher consolidation of locations and access to transport. Here in Texas space between entertainment spaces leads to people hopping around in the car rather than having a single destination. It's almost safer to have a single 6th street location where everything is walking distance where people can have one ride in and out rather than a location like.... let's say the Heights in Houston where each bar is 1.5 miles from each other. Police can't really do anything either other than catch someone already at risk of creating an accident. The state could also offer an incentive program for Uber or another ride share program. Make it a no-brainer to just log onto your app, instead of risking it. There are things the state could do today, and there's also the long term city planning which needs to start now with a longer vision on community planning for better safety.
Obviously, I'd like to see less drunk driving deaths. But when people see something abominable they want to stop, often the first lever they want to pull is to make the punishment harsher. And I don't think harsher punishment is all that effective in changing behavior. The problem is that the overwhelming majority of drunk driving trips conclude safely without crashing or getting pulled over -- something over 99% according to a quick google search. So, if you want people to be deterred from driving drunk, the threat of something bad happening to them is pretty remote. And if you want to just get them off the streets for a long time, you're just not catching enough of them to make a difference. Like with pretty much all crimes, it's better to increase the certainty of being caught (even with a small penalty) than it is to increase the severity of the punishment. But of course that's hard to achieve with drunk driving. What's probably even better -- and what we do some of already -- is to pull the education lever instead of the criminal justice lever. Nobody wants to kill people in a drunk driving accident. To empower them to do that, they need a healthy respect for the dangers of alcohol (addiction is a complicating factor in all of this) and for the moral consequences of drunk driving, they need an attractive alternative for transportation for when they are drunk and ideally a pre-arranged plan for using it instead of figuring it out after you're drunk. As a society, we're better at that than we used to be, but obviously there's still room for improvement. (There might be a tech solution in the end anyway. If we do move to an autonomous car transportation paradigm, drunks won't be making driving decisions anymore. But that's still years away.)
Alcohol should be stigmatized like cigarettes, IMO. We have a culture of total normalization and acceptance of drinking.
Hold bars accountable via civil lawsuits. They can budget rideshares, pass the cost on to the patrons. It's possible that there could be partial funding via the state for this. Same rationale holds true for gun dealers. Hold them accountable via civil lawsuits.
Part of tobacco addiction stigma is the terrible health toll it takes. Not many people drink to the point of horrible, asphyxiating deaths. Almost all smokers do.
I have been back in Houston for the last 4.5 years, I was in Omaha for about 10 years and the cops would do these random check points every weekend, like right off an exit ramp and would move it over and over all night so you never knew if you got off an exit they would be there waiting for you, stopped me from being stupid several times. I can say I have driven while buzzed several times when I was younger but not anymore, I will Uber or simply not go out even if I have one drink, its not worth it. Tito`s and cranberry is my go-to and there like lays potato chips to me, I cant have just one
It is 3rd leading cause of preventable death in the US behind smoking and obesity, but yeah cigarettes kill about 4x per year
I'm not arguing but I can name ONE person who I know died of alcohol, the guy who owned my house before me. I honestly have never met or been associated with a person who drank themselves to death other than that one person.
zero excuse to ever drive drunk when there’s Uber, Lyft, etc being randomly hit by a drunk driver is a fear of mine because it’s something that’s out of my control and yeah, it is crazy how the drunk driver or the one who sped past the red light always seems to survive, often with minor injuries, while the person or people they hit dies
People want to go out and party. Rather than punishing them for it let’s make it safer… so maybe everyone should drive drunk just like everyone should have a gun. Fight fire with fire, baby.
140,000 people a year die due to alcohol but unlike smoking a lot of those deaths are not the drinkers. Not to mention the sheer amount of domestic violence and child abuse related to alcoholism. Fun fact alcohol is one of the few drugs where you can die from the withdrawal symptoms. It is also biphasic meaning it acts as both a stimulant and a sedative. This does a number on your blood pressure and also increases the addictive qualities because we drink to enhance a good mood (Party!!) or a bad one (drown my sorrows in a bottle). I’d be perfectly happy if prohibition was brought back.
There is zero excuse for driving drunk. Make the penalty as harsh as it needs to be. Zero ****s given for those people
Sweden disagrees. First DUI, you lose your license for a year. Second DUI, you permanently lose your license. Sweden also has fines based on your annual income.
We saw how well that worked. I agree we have a problem with alcohol as a society but this is one where We can’t enforce our way out of it. This definitely needs changed in the culture.
I’ve never been to Sweden but my guess is they have more transportation options and the cities are more walkable so you don’t downed on automobiles. The problem with Houston and many other US cities is that they are built for automobiles so there is a strong impetus to drive no matter what state of impairment
I've never drank alcohol once in my life, it would be a bit ridiculous for me to have to take a breathalyzer to drive my car every day.
At least 10 people on my dads side of the family drank themselves to death, including my dad. I’ve literally watched it destroy many lives. I made a conscious effort to break the cycle in my family. It’s been around 17 years or so since I had a drop of alcohol. I’m not opposed to people drinking, but man have I watched it rip through and destroy so many families, and friends that I know. Not gonna lie, it’s a bit of a trigger for me. I can be around it, but I cannot be around it if others can’t hold their mud. I don’t go out with friends these days all that much. I think the reason is other than pouring my life into being the best father I can be, the main reason I don’t do all that much is because everyone is still living the same bar life and I am not about it. Any way… I think I shared enough there.
