I agree with the whole tax thing. My husbands mom smokes almost 2 packs a day and even though she was having health problems that needed her to quit she wouldn’t. But you better believe when they went up to almost 7 dollars a pack she started cutting back. As sad as it is money is the way to get through a lot of people. Money seems to be more important that health, which blows my mind. Money to me, yeah we need it to get the necessities, but other than that money and material things is not what I need to make me happy. First I make sure my daughter is happy, then my husband and if they are happy I am happy. I do not know if there is any sure proof way to get drunks off the road. My dad use to drink and drive with me and my sister in the car all the time and that is something that sticks with me to this day. He was willing to risk mine and my sisters life for his alcohol. He has stole from me and does not even want to sober up to be a part of his grand daughters life. I have tried calling the cops on him when he has tired to leave and drive when he was drunk. He locked himself in his truck with the engine running just sitting there in the drive way, so I just pulled my car behind him at least trying to block him in until police got there, of course I did not stay in my car cause he would have well rammed it with me in it. Needless to say he was arrested when they got there, but that does not stop him to try it again.

I agree with southfan-people will FIND a way around anything. If prevention education actually WORKED we wouldn’t have many of the problems we do today with drugs and alcohol. The police can arrest them,only to have them bonded out by the end of filling out the report, only to arrest them again the following weekend (or day). The laws are no good,if the COURTS are not going to enforce them. Maybe Congress needs to seriously look at mega increasing taxes on alcohol-perhaps that would be a detriment. The smoking tax has made some people quit smoking….why not a steep alcohol tax?

I realize that there will still be people who find a way to “get their fix,” but why make it any easier?

Meted out sentences for DUI should be handed out fairly.  It seems Judges have the ability to hand out whatever sentences they *think* is fair but the sentences are not fair to the community.  (i.e. the Judge in another part of the country handing out a ONE YR sentence for the rape of a 5 yr old child - that isn’t fair to the community and victim)

I have had it with the media and judges!

Alabama DUI POSSIBLE sentence: 1st DUI, misdemeanor, UP TO 365 days jail and $600-$2100 in fine and school. 2nd DUI w/i five years, misdemeanor, mandatory 5 days jail may be exchanged for community service, fine of $1,100-$5,100. 3rd offense, misdemeanor, 60 days to NO MORE THAN 1 yr jail, $2,100 to $10,100 fine. 4th offense is a class C felony.

I say BIG DEAL! How are these fines harsh? That person crawled behind a wheel and aimed a 4K lb vehicle at YOU! That sounds like attempted manslaughter to me. If you sit in a local court and keep track of sentencing you soon see that the minimum is given out routinely. The message is, “Boys will be Boys.” Prevention? There are ways around all that technology. If they have a second DUI, they are serious about killing someone.

I’m more interested in saving lives through prevention instead of doling out punishment after the fact.  There are some pretty tough DUI laws on the books for repeat offenders, but those do not stop the slaughter on our highways.

Redirect your attention to the lack of sentencing. Drunk driving is attempted murder in my line of reasoning. Normal people who get the first DUI don’t do it again. Repeat offenders are addicts. They need treatment and consequences. No drunk ever got into recovery unless they hit bottom, drank from the cups of their disease and SUFFERED consequences. Sliding into a family of six is offensive!

As for the blow to start devices, they just get their kids to blow. Then when daddy drives them into a lake the mommy who is court ordered to allow visitation gets CHARGED with manslaughter.

Judges and the public have the power to enforce a message. Right now that message is, “I did it, we all did it. Give them another chance.”

Yeah, that’s the thing.  Many of these cases are repeat offenders, but many others are not.  Even judges, lawyers and cops preach about DUI all day long and then go to a party or dinner and suddenly decide they can handle it like no one else can.  All it takes is one of those to drift across the center line at the wrong time and bam!

There is a way around almost everything people dream up, but a keypad, or something else might slow down a drunk long enough to make a difference.

Well if they resisted blowing in a gadget to get the car started, perhaps a combination lock type thing where they would have to press in the right combination to get the car started much like the outside locks on some cars now.

As an average person it would not bother me to press in a few numbers in a sequence to start my vehicle.  A DUI driver would have trouble getting the code punched in (I think).

Perhaps the gadget where you have to blow into could be an after-factory product that the court could order be placed on the DUI driver’s vehicles.  Of course that would not stop him from using non-gadgeted vehicles.

You are right though; technology could be the answer since the DUI laws on the books don’t seem to be working.

The average person would resist such a gadget, if they had to pull it out and blow in it in order to get the car started.  If it was subliminal and could sense the level of alcohol, most people wouldn’t mind it being there.

I agree that technology can play a role in this problem.  But why does it have to be subliminal.  Drunks need something “in their face”; subliminal will not do for them.