In less time than the average American spends driving to work, an alcohol related traffic accident will occur somewhere in the United States. On average, a drunk driver crashes every 30 minutes, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Upwards of 14,000 Americans are killed by drunk drivers every year. The carnage never stops.
Even more incredible is that drunks have been killing and maiming people at this rate or worse since just after World War II. During the last fifty years, about 750,000 Americans have been killed by drunk drivers. The Fatality Analysis Reporting System Encyclopedia (FARS) confirms alcohol-related traffic deaths remain remarkably consistent, accounting for a low of 14,250 fatalities to a high of 15,263 every year from 1996 through 2006. You do the math.
According to the Mother’s Against Drunk Driving (MADD) website, “about three in every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some time in their lives.” Incredibly, “over 1.46 million drivers were arrested in 2006 for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics. This is an arrest rate of 1 for every 139 licensed drivers in the United States.”
Had enough? Apparently not. Despite the best efforts of groups like MADD, drunks keep driving and Americans keep dying, little wonder since repeat offenders know by experience they have a good chance of not getting caught. If the MADD statistics are correct, a drunk driver will be arrested once every 109 drunken trips. Moreover, DUI defense attorneys brazenly advertise their ability to successfully defend DUI arrestees, and include “Southern California DUI Cop Hideouts” and pages of material under such helpful banners as “Tips to minimize your risk of being convicted of DUI/DWI, drunk driving or driving under the influence” on their websites. Finally, offenders convicted of multiple DUIs have learned our society will allow them to continue to drive. Put all this together and you get the following heartbreaking stories.
“Less than a year after his parole ended for killing a woman in a drunken driving wreck, Robert J. Vandyke is looking at another prison sentence after being convicted of his sixth drunk driving offense.” That’s right, do not adjust the rabbit ears. After FIVE DUI CONVICTIONS, killing a woman and seriously injuring the dead woman’s 12-year-old daughter, this boozer was let out of jail and given a license to drive, according to the Daily Herald of Utah County. Thankfully, he was re-arrested before anyone else was slaughtered. His lawyer is planning to appeal this latest conviction.
“A judge Friday [April 4, 2008] sentenced a Lake Elsinore woman with numerous drunken-driving convictions to life in prison for the drunken-driving crash that killed a 5-year-old girl,” as reported by the Press-Enterprise. “The judge said [Michelle] Coplen showed no signs of remorse and, if she were freed, probably would drink and drive on the day of her release.” Sentenced to a minimum of 21 years, Ms. Coplen will be eligible for parole when she is 59. The little girl will still be dead. Her paternal grandmother, referring to the killer’s five previous DUI convictions, said, “In some sense I feel the system let us down.”
The system is letting every American down. Impaired driving, despite decades of campaigns to end it, is still viewed as excusable behavior, especially after the first or even second offense. In the Utah case, Mr. Vandyke was charged with a “third-degree felony because of a state law that raises the charge from a misdemeanor if a defendant has had two or more drunk driving convictions in the past 10 years.” (Emphasis added) In other words, even in conservative Utah, first offenders and two-time losers are given a slap on the wrist and returned to the highways. How many more years must we endure 14,000+ fatalities before we decide to make every DUI charge a felony? The answer must be blowin’ in the wind.
Last June “a motorist who struck about two dozen cars and two people during a wild ride was charged with drunken-driving and hit-and-run,” said an Associated Press story. “David Wecksler, 31, of Long Beach, was charged with two misdemeanor counts…in connection with the blocks-long accident spree in Belmont Heights…Wecksler has a 2003 conviction for driving under the influence and his license was suspended on four occasions, authorities said.” (Emphasis added) No doubt, Mr. Wecksler will soon be legally driving again.
We are not learning.
Posted by Jerry Pomeroy in Cultural Insanity