Oh, I could not agree more, SLM. Zero tolerance would make the whole drinking and driving thing a no brainer. You drink, drive and get caught - you're a gonner.
Yep, driving is not a right, it's a privilege. These are rules required to maintain this privilege, if one cannot abide by them then one should not be afforded the privilege.
I say this in all honestly as a reformed drunk driver - one that never got caught. Growing up on the prairies, drinking and driving was the norm. Your parents did it. Your relatives did it. Hell, the priests and nuns did it - I know this because some of them used to come to our home for parties - and those guys and gals weren't shy around liquor. But - it was a different time. Traffic for one thing, is nothing compared to the volumes you see on the roads today even on the roads in Regina where I grew up. I drank and drove all through my twenties and up to my 40s until one night when I woke up in a ditch; the truck still running and no idea how I got there. I'd fallen asleep on my way home from helping my friends close the bar down after work on a Friday night. I'd nodded off a few times but always managed to shake it off. I had stopped a few times to get out and walk around and get the blood circulating again and kept telling myself I could make it home.
After I turned off the truck, I crawled up out of the ditch to find that I'd left the road on a sharp left hand corner on a hill. On the right side and below the road were four houses. Somehow the truck as it rounded the corner had kept turning to the left where the former road bed still existed. The truck followed the old road bed until it hit a log.
I don't know what guided my truck in the direction it took but the absolute terror I felt when I realized what could have happened had I headed in the other direction or had there been traffic on the highway still lives with me today. I never ever drank and drove again.
Indeed, thank you for sharing that. I'd venture to guess that is a fairly common back story for a lot of Canadians, particularly with so many of us living or having grown up in these smaller towns and rural communities. Even though so many of us live in larger more urban centres, that kind of thinking has really permeated our culture for a long, long time. I think it's changing, but not swiftly enough unfortunately. That's why I think it's important to share those kinds of histories with each other, and again, thanks for sharing yours.
I would love to see it reach 100%, but the said fact of the matter is that no matter how much information is given to some people they will continue to drink and drive regardless of the consequences.
Personally, I think that deaths caused by DUIs should be considered murder, and the jail sentences meted out match up with that. There is no one out there driving today that doesn't know that drinking and driving can cause accidents(of course, it really isn't "accidental" then, now is it?).
No, you're right, no matter how much information is given or laws written, people will continue to drink and drive. I mean, murder is against the law and people still kill other people. You can't legislate away truly stupid behaviour. People make conscious,
sober decisions to drink while knowing full well they will be operating a vehicle afterwards. The penalties need to be excessively harsh, hopefully harsh enough to deter those from getting behind the wheel before they "accidentally" take someones life.
And I don't know about murder, because as I understand it, that requires proof of intent. However I see no reason why the penalty that Drunk Driving causing Death should not be 25 years to life, instead of what do they get now three to five years? Talk about making a mockery of the value of life of a human being!
It's not being holier than thou, it's just plain common sense.
Sadly common sense is not that common.
