I quite nearly got whacked by a drunk the other night. I'm a police officer and was riding in the passenger seat two nights ago while my partner drove.
We were rolling along in a quiet residential neighborhood, approaching an uncontrolled intersection, when I heard the sound of a loud veh. engine approaching.
I looked to my right and saw a work van barrelling along at 50+ in this residential neighborhood.
I had to scream out loudly, "watch out! Watch out!" My partner stopped our patrol car before we got completely into the intersection. The van skids to a stop into the middle of the intersection.
The height differential between our two vehicles put his bumper and grill at my ear/shoulder level. If I had not cried out then I would have taken a bumper to my head and upper torso.
The driver had 3 prior DUI convictions. Considering out hard it is to get convicted of DUI in this state, and that most cops don't like to work a DUI because it take 3 hours minimum to do the paperwork, just to have some lawyer get the guy off, this guy has probably been pulled over for DUI 10+ times. Not to mention all the times he's been driving drunk and wasn't caught.
I'd bet that all three of his DUI convictions were a result of him having collisions while drunk, as most DUI convictions are lost on the probable cause for the stop.
This past July WA state passed a law that makes your 5th DUI conviction in 10 years a felony. And that supposedly toughened the law up.
My agency had a brand new officer get whacked by a high and drunk woman last year.
Why do you think, as a police officer, the laws are so flimsy and the courts don’t throw the book at these drunks? Why, even when people are murdered, are these creeps not severely punished? My theory is that it’s because judges and juries hear drunk driving stories and think, “wow, I’ve driven drunk before in my life, and I was lucky enough to make it home without hitting anyone. This was just a case of bad luck.” What do you think?