Drunk Drivers on our Highways – Stop the Insanity!
Drunk Drivers on our Highways – Stop the Insanity!
No surprises there are several thousand deaths on our beautiful highways annually. Could those in charge please wake up and smell the fresh blood on the highways please! Until there is a law which allow families of innocent victims of drunk drivers to file suit against the State and local agencies, this tragedy will continue. What it comes down to is a choice between profit & human lives. Every day, I pull up at the gas station to purchase my gas or soft drinks; someone purchases a beer on their way from work or just driving around town without regard for other people’s lives.
Sure, it’s a chance these people take daily. It’s like Russian roulette. Hit miss, sometimes it’s with a deadly result before the hit is recorded. We all can spell out the problem – Drunk Drivers on our roads are tantamount to death and destruction. Ads on the net, television, highways and even by cops do not deter a common criminal alcoholic person from causing havoc. What then is the solution? I have got a list of suggestions here. I am almost sure that one or the combination of one or two of the items on the list will certainly work towards reducing the vicious circle of death on our roads. At least, we can aim as high as sixty percent reduction in our daily recorded statistics on our highways.
Some of these might be consider draconian, but nevertheless – are necessary evil.
[1] Eliminate the pleasure from the use of alcoholic beverages by placing a mandatory 1 year prison term for anyone caught with open beer/wine or any other spirit while in a motor vehicle for first time offenders. Second time, increase the penalty to 5.
[2] Enforce the law from the technology stand-point – commission professional geeks to develop an instrument which will be factory installed in all motor vehicles [including trucks, off-roads, motorbikes and for hires] that can detect alcoholic beverages on the breath of the potential drunk driver and cut off the ignition. Certainly, if we can remotely cut off bait cars from potential thieves, we can develop this type of technology.
[3] This is the most draconian of my suggestion- Before you try to lecture me about rights and privacy, consider yourself a victim of a drunk driver and think about your family, etc – then proceed to read me the 4th Amendment which states:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Perhaps it’s all a matter of interpretation. Remember the simple clause, “upon probable cause”? Well, that’s where my third suggestion comes into play – A person goes into the store and purchase one bottle of beer in a gas station, showing his/her State issued identification card and then proceeded to drive off. Once the identification is shown, it should be scan into Drunk Drivers Highway Safety Watch [DDHSW] which will be immediately fed into database for local highway patrol vehicles within 25 miles of the purchase store.
This measure of course should immediately create hundreds of thousands of jobs for our local economy by hiring DDHSW patrol officers and purchasing hundreds of tow-trucks to tow away vehicles of offenders.
So far, within our criminal justice system, more people are in prison for using drugs like marijuana, crack cocaine and powder cocaine among others. Mind you, I do not use now nor do I ever wish to use any of these substance. And I do not wish to make any excuse for any user of any illegal substances. But one thing should be up for debate as we seek solutions to the problem of drunk driving- These people who use these other drugs don’t seem to use and kill innocent people on the highway. At least I haven’t seen, heard or read any such report: – Man was high on crack cocaine and kills a family of 5 on highway 66. Yet on a daily basis, we see the exact same bulletin for drunk drivers.
So, if we can (1) Take the pleasure out of drinking and driving (2) Take the profit out of drinking and driving, perhaps we can reduce the tragic violence of shedding innocent blood on the highways and byways of beautiful America. I have described how to take the pleasure out of drunk driving, now; here is how to take the profit out of it –
[4] Lets go back to the 50’s when people can have fun and not jeopardize the lives of total strangers. Sell alcoholic beverages in designated stores only…..Stores designated for alcoholic beverages only not combined with tomatoes, potatoes and milk. The art of selling alcohol in a gas station which is adjacent to highways, are on the highways tend to encourage drunk driving. It’s like placing a key in a bait car, 99% of the time; a low-life person
Pages: 1 2