Drunk Driving Penalties By State
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Do DUI Penalties Deter Drunk Driving?
Driving under the influence of alcohol is an undeniable problem across the world. Many preventive measures are taken to discourage the act, but massive penalties are used by every state as a deterrent. The question is do they work?
There are two forms of drunk driving from a legal perspective, but really just one form if you think the process through. The two types are DUI and DWI. DUI refers to driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent or higher. This is known as driving drunk per se. A DWI, in contrast, does not require the .08 percent figure. You can be driving with blood alcohol content of .05, but still be charged for driving while impaired if the officer in question believes your driving was impacted. In truth, but really boil down to whether your ability to control a car and make decisions is impacted.
A host of preventative efforts are made to deter drunk driving. They range from public information commercials, the broadcasting of horror stories from crashes and the very public display of police check points. Logically, all make sense as deterrents, but there is one problem. By definition, a person that has been tossing down adult beverages all night is not making logical decisions. State governments use the concept of fear to address this issue.
Fear is a great motivator. It is one of our base emotional states. State governments know this and they tie it into drunk driving deterrents by running up the penalties. If you are convicted for a DUI, you face a host of nightmarish penalties. First, you are going to pay big dollars for an attorney, then you are going to pay fines and perhaps the cost of counseling. Depending on the state, you may well end up sitting in jail for a month to a year. That means losing your job and probably going bankrupt since you will not be able to pay bills. I’m not even going to mention what car insurance is going to end up costing you!
So, do these penalties actually work? All indications are they do. Over 26,000 people died in 1982 due to alcohol-related accidents. This accounted for roughly 60 percent of all deaths in traffic accidents. 25 years later, “only” a bit over 15,000 people were killed in alcohol-related deaths, roughly 37 percent of all traffic accident deaths. The 15,000 figure is all the more encouraging when you figure in the fact the population grew dramatically during this period.
Drunk driving will never be eliminated unless we revisit the idea of Prohibition. Nobody wants to do that, so severe penalties will have to be the major deterrent.
About the Author
Dirk Gibson writes about drinking and driving facts for the aftermarket car parts site - DCJAutoParts.com.
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