Thursday, August 23, 2007

Increased penalties for drunk drivers

In a press release yesterday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, their top official Nicole Nason called on the law courts and prosecutors to allow their officers to increase their use of ignition interlocks. This plan is to castigate further those individuals who have been repeatedly caught under excessive influence of liquor while driving. The whole story may be found at DUI-NHTSA.

I would say that this plan of action is indeed a positive development, especially for those law-abiding drivers. Those “alcohol addicts” must be taken away from the road and incriminate them so that they may not cause any harm to other motorists and even pedestrians. Providing them with stricter penalties might give them a lesson and compel them of not doing the same mistake again.

We just have to imagine the risks of sharing our road paths with them. According to the statistics conducted, 13,470 casualties resulted from motorcycle accidents wherein the drivers were found to be intoxicated above the level of accepted Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC). This does not include the number of victims who had incurred severe personal injuries from it.

Furthermore, studies also showed that people who got involved in excessive drinking are more likely to cause vehicle accidents since their sensory motor are very much affected. Hence, they must first get enough rest in order to drop the BAC on their body. This means that they should be hindered from driving for at least five hours or after they already have a nice sleep, depending on the level of their intoxication.

Thus, if you have the habit of getting behind your car wheels after a night out with your friends, better think twice. If this proposal by the NHTSA was finally given action by the judiciary, there would be strong chances that you might be penalized according to the government plan.