Cowboys DT charged with Intoxicated Manslaughter

[hooskins]

Originally Posted by Monkeydad

Killing someone is a little bigger than "just a mistake".

Driving drunk is not a "mistake", it's a damn stupid decision that you could pay for...but others shouldn't have to.

I have zero tolerance for drunk drivers. My wife and kids got t-boned by a drunk last year who went through a stop sign without even slowing down...thank God they were unharmed (car was totaled), but it should never have happened in the first place.

Even before that day, I had the same view on it. This just put it on concrete.

I think we agree here that it's a horrible thing to do and it puts everyone in danger.

The real question is how do you cure this epidemic our nation deals with on a daily basis? I personally think crucifying the drivers isn't the only or long term solution. Dui laws continue to grow and I don't think we've had a significant change in the number of accidents and deaths (correct me if I'm wrong here).

To be honest, I think something radical like bha's proposal of making breathilizers manditory in all new cars is an interesting idea. Obviously doesn't stop all occurrences but its a start. And its something different.

Yeah, its sad we can't regulate ourselves and it would be some big brother ish but I think its better than what we have now. Call me whatever you want, but less deaths and less lives ruined to drunk driving is worth it.

[firstdown]

Originally Posted by hooskins

I think we agree here that it's a horrible thing to do and it puts everyone in danger.

The real question is how do you cure this epidemic our nation deals with on a daily basis? I personally think crucifying the drivers isn't the only or long term solution. Dui laws continue to grow and I don't think we've had a significant change in the number of accidents and deaths (correct me if I'm wrong here).

To be honest, I think something radical like bha's proposal of making breathilizers manditory in all new cars is an interesting idea. Obviously doesn't stop all occurrences but its a start. And its something different.

Yeah, its sad we can't regulate ourselves and it would be some big brother ish but I think its better than what we have now. Call me whatever you want, but less deaths and less lives ruined to drunk driving is worth it.

Deaths have dropped to an all time low. The number are skewed but that's another thread.


Not only did the number of people killed in drunk driving crashes in 2011 (9,878) drop by 2.5 percent from the number killed in 2010 (10,136), but this decline outpaced the 1.9 percent decrease in overall highway deaths. "Our efforts are paying off in lives saved and injuries prevented," added Withers.
Since MADD was founded in 1980, more than 300,000 lives have been saved as a result of efforts to strengthen drunk driving laws and raise awareness about this 100 percent preventable crime. In addition, since MADD's Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving was launched in 2006, we've seen an almost 27 percent decrease in drunk driving fatalities. The campaign includes three important components: 1) supporting high-visibility law enforcement efforts, such as sobriety checkpoints and NHTSA's nationwide 'Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over' campaign; 2) requiring ignition interlocks for all convicted drunk drivers; and 3) supporting the development of technology to automatically determine whether a driver is at or above the legal limit of .08 blood alcohol concentration (BAC).