🚀 go-pugleaf

Michael Garrett wrote:

> I concur with Ken.
>
> 1. Don't drink and drive.
> 2. Don't Drink and Drive.
> 3. dont drink and drive.

But that is not the law.  The law is: "Don't drive with a BAC over X".  I don't
know what X is for Virginia.  He may have been 0.01 or 0.03 over.  Extremely
slight or somewhat slight.  Its difficult to know, too.  How do you tell when
you've got too much?  0.08 is extremely low, and IMHO an hysterical over-reaction
to the pressures from MADD that is put on legislators.


> It's easy.  It doesn't matter if he had "only a few" and "may not" have been
> "technically drunk."

If he wasn't "technically drunk" that would matter a whole lot, I would think.


>  He drank, he drove, three people died.  He drank. He
> did. No one else.  No one forced him to take one sip of beer and get behind
> the car.  He pays the consequences.
>
> If he hadn's had a BAC, then he would have simply been a reckless driver and
> charged accordingly

Is there no concept of an accident?  Is everything "reckess driving"?  To the best
of my recollection, when someone rear-ends someone most other places, they are
cited for "failure to maintain an assured clear distance", not "reckless
driving".  Reckless driving, in my experience (mostly Ohio and Indiana) has
usually been reseerved for extreme things like sliding around corners, maybe on 2
wheels, other high-G-force situations, weaving in and out of traffic rapidly,
etc.  Around here, it seems that "reckless driving" may be any driving mistake
that turns out badly.


> (recently here in D.C. an SUV hit a semi-truck which sent
> the semi careening across 4 lanes of traffic, through a concrete barrier, into
> the air and down on top of two vehicles heading south in the HOV lanes.
> Killed five people.  They didn't even have time to react - the truck landed on
> them.  The driver of the SUV was charged with "improper lane change" and
> received a $200 fine.)
>
>  But he wasn't drinking.  Now as deplorable as our regular driving laws are
> (IMO - "improper lane change = stupidity which = you lose your right to drive
> which = take a bus where you can't hurt anyone) at LEAST our drunk driving
> laws are getting a bit harsher.

The area of the mishap is known for the difficulties it presents.  I don't know
exactly where it was, but others have said this on this forum.  The situation may
have been something where there was a large speed differential between the 2 cars,
and it was just a matter of not having quite enough driving skill and maybe
clairvoyance to keep track of all the traffic all of the time.  The road is
actually pretty scarey at times.  I'd rather drive Detroit traffic, and those
people "really haul", than I-95.  I don't think I've seen faster traffic on
narrower interstate roads in worse weather anywhere else than in Detroit.  Of
course I haven't been to every city... <G>


> Let's say the guy had only had "one line of cocaine."  Would people still feel
> that he was being railroaded?

No comparison.  That's an illegal drug.  Taking _any_ is a felony all by itself.

DPH

>
>
> "Ken M." wrote:
>
> > x-no-archive:yes
> >
> > DPH wrote:
> > >
> > > Anyone catch the account of the US Navy member that rear-ended another
> > > car and killed 3 people a couple years ago?  He drive off - left the
> > > scene - and attempted to get rid of the beer bottles.  Didn't work.  He
> > > was 0.11 BAC.
> > >
> > > Judge gave him 51 yrs in prison, 34 suspended.  He'll be gone 17 years.
> > >
> > > What to think?  The 0.11 BAC is only slightly over the limit.  Driving
> > > off was bad but it was an Interstate and there were others around to
> > > help.  State sentencing guidelines are 4 yrs and 11 mo. on average for
> > > this sort of thing.  The guy didn't have priors.  But he killed 3
> > > people.
> > >
> > > How bad of a guy is he, really?  If he'd have not had anything to
> > > drink,.would he have reacted that much sooner to prevent the deaths?  I
> > > don't have the info on how the accident actually occured.  That would be
> > > helpful.
> > >
> > > What do people think about this, if they saw the account.  Story is
> > > here: http://fredericksburg.com/news/stories/0325term.htm
> > >
> > > DPH
> >
> > How bad a guy is he? He's a drunk driver who killed three people. What
> > are
> > their lives worth now? Nothing, he killed them.
> >
> > With all the attention and laws that have been passed since the mid 80's
> > on DWI and DUI, you would think people should have caught on now --
> > DON'T DRINK
> > AND DRIVE!
> >
> > (ken)
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------
> > This Mont. Co. police officer is operating laser radar:
> > http://www.zyworld.com/digitalphoto/test.htm
> > Slow down when you visit us in Maryland!
> > --------------------------------------------
> > Don't forget to set your clocks ahead one hour
> > this Saturday night!
> > --------------------------------------------