Posted on 10/11/2010 7:04:01 AM PDT by KeyLargo
Austin chief pushes for new drunk driving charge
Acevedo says proposal is aimed at impaired drivers, who can be dangerous even if they aren't legally drunk By Mike Ward
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Updated: 5:14 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 7, 2010
A campaign to create a new category of driving while intoxicated is being promoted at the Capitol as one way to curb growing problems in Texas’ system of punishing drunken drivers.
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo, among the supporters of the change, said the idea behind a new offense of “driving while ability impaired” — DWAI — would cover drivers whose blood-alcohol content is between 0.05 and 0.07.
That would be less than the 0.08 level required before police can charge a motorist with drunken driving.
A first-offense DWI is a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine, plus potential driver’s license restrictions. No specific penalty has been proposed for DWAI.
(Excerpt) Read more at statesman.com ...
Driving while not in fact drunk
by Walter Olson on October 11, 2010
Austin’s police chief wants to criminalize driving on 0.05 blood alcohol — which for many people means a beer or two — and state senator John Whitmire of Houston is sympathetic: “Some people shouldn’t be driving after one drink.” A MADD spokesman applauds, to0
http://overlawyered.com/2010/10/driving-while-not-in-fact-drunk/
It’s only a short distance to “Driving to go out to get a beer.”
Why not just charge everyone for driving period, and be done with it?
All drivers are guilty!
As far as they can get away with. Just look at how far they have come with the war against smokers.
I don’t drink and I believe that first time drunk drivers should get a mandatory 1 year in prison and lose all driving privileges (absolutely no exceptions for work, etc.) for 5 years.
That said, lowering the limit to .05 is ridiculous. We should be cracking down hard on the real drunk drivers, not persecuting sober drivers. I believe the .08 standard is a fairly recent development. When I was learning to drive it was .10.
Does Texas still allow driving with an open container in the car? Do they still have drive through windows at the liquor stores? Just curious.
system of punishing drunken drivers system of extracting large amounts of money from the general populace. And of course the harpies at MADD are for it. They'd like to see the limit lowered to 0 and just charge everyone for driving drunk.
Dante had this to say about MADD (punishment in the second ring)
Here the repellent harpies make their nests,
Who drove the Trojans from the Strophades
With dire announcements of the coming woe.
They have broad wings, a human neck and face,
Clawed feet and swollen, feathered bellies; they caw
Their lamentations in the eerie trees.
Actually, why not just have traffic cops drive around and give tickets for driving violations? I never see anyone get cited for nearly causing accidents for doing stupid illegal things like weaving from lane to lane while texting, cutting drivers off because they are not paying attention, tailgating, etc etc etc. Why? Because the cops are sitting on the side of the road running radar (OR the other day we saw a cop who was chatting on his cell phone weaving lane to lane etc!).
I don’t really want really drunk people driving, but impaired people are doing things while driving that anyone with any sense will notice. You don’t have to stop them and test their blood. They need to start actually giving tickets to people who are driving wrecklessly whether it’s because they are drunk, or texting or just too stupid to be driving. And when they accrue enough tickets they need to take their licenses away. And if they continue to drive, toss them in the hoosegow. And if they are here illegally....toss them out of the country.
Stop giving Liquor Licenses to bars and restaurants with Parking Lots.
There was some additional comment on this on the local news the other night concerning this. They (police) were saying that the issue is related to pulling people on the road over who are ‘driving erratically’, but after administered a alcohol test are ‘just below’ the legally defined drunk limit. It sounds washy to me. Thoughts?
Someone with a blood alcohol level of .12 that could prove they are NOT impaired would be let off?
Nah
Sorry to say it, but a lot of the push to stop “drunk driving” is supported by lawyers and communities that want to make money. Before I get flamed, let me point out an absolute fact:
In our city, like many other cities, there are different parts of town with different economic income levels. In our case, the West side is the poorest and an arrest would most likely include a person that would need a public defender. The North side is the richest, and most likely to hire their own lawyer.
Guess which side of town most of the DUI “dragnets” are set up on?
Guess which side of town has the most DUI related accidents?
Hint - there are two different answers to the above questions.
Case closed.
I think you’re an idiot. Just my humble opinion.
We'll check in to see how you feel about that law if you ever are stopped at a roadblock and forced to blow into a faulty breathalyzer. Don't think it isn't possible to have a DUI charge even if you are stone cold sober. Each year, we buy into the hysteria and allow even more intrusive law enforcement into our lives.
All the laws we keep imposing can be distilled into only several basic laws. If we only enforce those, why pass more? For example, on the roadways, there should be a basic law against reckless driving. Whether you are DUI or just plain driving like a jackass, there is a law for that and that's called reckless driving. Why invent all these other laws?
You are touching on the real problem. .08 is a truly enforcable limit. You will not get a jury to convict for .08 since at least one person on the jury will think that .08 isn't so bad regardless of the law. This prevents judges from imposing heavy punishment in non-jury trials. They don't want to force every DWI to a jury trial. Most juries would be willing to throw the book at a .12 driver since they know it is excessive and dangerous.
If you made .08 the DWAI with a fine and 1 night in jail, it would insure such cases end up on the record to track habitual offenders. Escalate on repeat offenses. Make DWI .12 with mandatory heavy penalties; heavy enough that friends won't let friends drive drunk because they know how devastating the effect on their lives will be.
Open container is no longer allowed. Drive through liquor stores are still allowed.
“I don’t drink and I believe that first time drunk drivers should get a mandatory 1 year in prison and lose all driving privileges (absolutely no exceptions for work, etc.) for 5 years.”
You might not believe that way if you went to work with me a couple of times. I am a counselor in a prison for substance abusers. These are decent men with a problem, not criminals, and taking their livelihoods generates immense anger and frustration. We don’t punish our murderers, but give draconian penalties for drunk driving.
Our punishments don’t fit the crime. We are filling up prisons with men who have a problem, and are otherwise decent men. Do you really want that?
The other day I interviewed an eighteen year old first offender born in 1992. Do you have any idea what could happen to that kid in prison? Drunk driving laws are extreme and insane, and I haven’t had a drink in twenty one years.
Also- They should check everyone for illegal narcotics.
Guess what - a pot smoker will be detectable DAYS after
smoking-” if they are user”- fine them like crazy- even if they have not smoked in a couple of days-
Regular tobacco smokers should be fined also -insurance
companies have proved - smoking while driving has a higher
accident rate.
Eating a Big Mac - should call for a huge fine!
Sarc
Let’s be clear: the goal here is to return to prohibition.
If the goal was safety, we’d be getting illegal aliens off the roads, and not handing out drivers licenses to people who cannot drive.
One guy begged a Williamson county LEO to let him cross back into Travis county and be arrested there instead. He is in prison for 45 years now.
Although test show that at .08 someone is impaired and their reaction times are affected, the large majority of drivers would not be impaired to the extent that the alchohol alone woulld account for erratic driving. Judgement may be affected to the extent that the person may indulge in distracted behaviour; behaviour they normally indulge in but get away with while their is no alchohol influence to compound the effect (eating, cell phone usage, radio adjustments, excessive animated conversation, etc.)
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