I was watching an episode of "Unsolved Mysteries" yesterday (don't hate, it's a good show...and ok, it was more than one episode) and they had a story about a drunk driver. This fucker went out drinking with his friend all night, then got into his truck and got on the highway. When he ended up behind a slow driver, he decided to pass her at 90 MPH on a two-lane stretch of road where passing wasn't allowed. This resulted in him hitting a car full of college students head-on, killing all but one of them. He and his passenger, of course, survived with minor injuries. His blood alcohol level was absurd and he was arrested and charged with DUI and vehicular homicide, then released pending a trial. According to the drunk's father, he began to received death threats from various anonymous people between his arrest and his trial and so he "had" to skip bail and go on the lam. Then, the father questioned whether the blood test taken at the hospital was legit and made the false claim that, "From what I had heard, the kids in the car were full of alcohol and marijuana". The prosecution tested everyone that night, dead or alive, and only two people involved had anything in their system - the ones in the truck. Also, I don't care if three of those four kids were drunk and high off their assess, it doesn't matter so long as the one driving was sober, but I digress. The drunk was apprehended a few years later, stood trial and was found guilty. And do you know what he got after all that? Fourteen and a half years in prison. That's around five years per life he took. And that's the problem with the drunk driving laws in this country.
Those of you who know me are aware that I'm one of the rare cases where the sober driver (narrowly) survived and the drunk driver perished. You also know my stance on drunk driving is one thing that will never change. I've never gotten behind the wheel after having been drinking, not even after one watered down drink. We had a demonstration at our junior high school about driving while intoxicated that stuck with me and flared up in my head every time I even considered that whole, "Well, I think I'm alright to just drive home" notion. Unlike when you're drugging yourself to death and only killing one person, driving under the influence presents a much, much greater chance of killing everyone but yourself. It's insane how many drunk drivers survive without a scratch, while the sober people they hit die on impact. I came dangerously close to being just another statistic in 2002. I can't even fathom how a grown ass person (any person, really, but adults should know better) can get into a car and swerve down a highway after a night of drinking. Hell, even one drink is too many. But sadly, the penalties for drinking and driving aren't all that severe, even when there are fatalities involved. There's not much to dissuade people from doing it, aside from good old common sense and decency and we all know that's in short supply nowadays. America, yo.
