NOT severe enough here, they did just change some laws so that if you are caught dui with a child under a certain age it is a much more severe penalty, but still not enough to stop it from happening.
I think it should be taken more seriously at the point of sale, the majority of dui incidents are on the way home from a bar, restaurant, or event. SO IMO, we need a few things..
1-bar tenders need to be licensed, and have training on how to serve and detect when someone can not drive. Most states have programs and licenses but I am talking about something better. The bar tender should be able to be criminally charged if someone leaves the establishment un-reported and hurts someone.
2- The establishment needs to also be held responsible, I am talking legal criminal charges...
3-much stiffer penalties, first offense no license for x amount of time, the time should coordinate with a mandatory treatment program, and after you get the license back you should only be able to drive to and from work for x amount of time, and have to keep a badge on your vehicle (like a dominos sign) that says "I AM ON DUI PROBATION, HOW IS MY DRIVING, CALL ***-***-xxxx".
4- To fund all of this the financial penalties should be STIFF, like $25K on time payments if they have to be...
second offences should be mandatory jail time, say 12 months, 2 years no license, $100K fine, and if someone is hurt or accident resulting, they should be publicly caned.. If you get caught once and have to go through all that **** and then have the balls to do it again, you wont stop until you hurt someone, thats just a hard fact of life, people that dont learn from once, arent going to learn from twice, so chop off their hands so they cant drive anymore...
I was rear ended by a drunk driver, no one was hurt, I was at a stop sign and he forgot to stop, maybe 6 mph, I was on a service call at 2am in the middle of winter, out working to support my family, and all I could think about was this ******* douche bag could have killed me because he doesn't feel good enough about himself to stop drinking after a couple drinks, or to call a cab... I remember sitting at home afterwards (he was arrested at the scene) wishing I had kicked the ******* **** out of his drunk ***, I have NO idea why I didn't, I must have been over tired or had a concussion because to this day I don't know why I didn't rip him through the window and stove his head in, damn regrets....
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As bad as it is, impaired driving should not be the only main focus for handing out fines and suspensions. I couldn't begin to tell you how many terribly maintained cars I've seen on the road. I know the times are hard every now and then but what gives some drivers the right to ignore their vehicle's condition especially when it could put others lives at stake. Bald tires, burned out lights of all types, shocks that are finished and the list goes on. Accountabilty will surely find it's way to the culprit that ignores their cars condition after a serious accident, but, do we really need another law to make drivers responsible for sake of those around them on the highways?
Around here our cars are in pretty good shape, we have inspections every 1 or 2 years depending on your vin numbers last digit and what year it is, they hook the car to the sniffer, dial in the ecm, and check for safety, tire depth, brake condition, all lights working, no broken, glass, working seatbelts, no rot, etc...
I remember years ago, we used to see junk boxes going down the road, cars with mis colored doors and fenders, cars being chased by a HUGE plume of smoke. Not anymore, hardly ever do you even see a peddiddle going down the road... (thats a headlight out, lol, not sure if that word translates through all 50 states, we used to punch the person next to us and say pediddle when we seen a car with a winking front end at night, dediddle was a bad brake light, and tediddle was a blinker out, which was very hard to prove, you had to spot them fast and either the front or back had to be blinking with one NOT blinking...)
