Another reason not to drink and drive

[nissangirl74]

This is heart-breaking

12-year-old Faith Carberry, of Longford, Ireland, filed a lawsuit against her parents, Mary Carberry and Tommy Varden, after sustaining severe injuries from a drunk driving accident caused by Carberry, driving a car purchased by Varden....The accident occurred in November, 2007, when Faith was seven years old. Carberry was binge drinking and crashed her BMW into an embankment, killing Faith's sister Ava, 6, and Faith's' friend, Michaela Logan, 9. Michaela's brother John was also injured but, like Faith, survived the crash.....

Also, I had no idea this number would be so high

.... In the US, more than two thirds of children fatally injured in car accidents were riding with drunk drivers, according to a report by the Center of Disease Control and Prevention....

http://shine.yahoo.com/parenting/12-old ... 00659.html


Feel free to pass this around. It might be the catalyst for someone to make a smart decision.

[Oh Em Zee]

So the thing that bugs me a bit;
In California, "Street racing" is cracked down on very hard, while drunk driving is barely touched upon.
Drunk driving accounts for a huge portion more deaths and accidents.
Street racing is defined as modified anything. including tow hook charms and aftermarket wheels.
There are very few DUI checkpoints, but there are Smog checkpoints which nail our communities for simple modifications.
Priorities are really out of whack. Drunk driving is so dangerous and I've seen more people crash on the mountain drunk and speeding, than racing full out.
It's terrifying, and it's not changing. The best prevention is stopping your friends from doing it.

This is a sad story when a 12 year old presses law suits against her own parents.

[C-Kwik]

I've been through many DUI checkpoints. Never even seen a smog checkpoint...

Short of waiting outside of bars for potential DUI hits (which cops here do) and the DUI checkpoints, its hit or miss finding them. Stings on street racing (San Diego's DragNet) can target large groups more easily as they tend to congregate in known areas.

And regardless of if it is a priority, doesn't make it an issue we don't enforce. You can say murder is a higher priority issue than theft. Do we stop enforcing theft laws?

[WDRacing]

The consequence for DUI needs to be far greater. Until the consequences are brutal, people will continue to drink and drive. How about 30 days in jail, which you are forced to pay for.

[Chaotic_Warlord]

Meanwhile here on the Philly area we had a guy get busted 6 seperate times for DUI in a matter of a couple weeks, and had a 20year veteran of the Philly PD and a 12 year veteren cop in Jersey both killed by drunk drivers on the same nite, the Jersey cop was killed while in pursuit of saidup drunk driver and the Philly cop was killed on his way home from his shift, 2 seperate incidents. Having said all that, we have very few reported drunk driving deaths around hete, mostly due to the fact that PA, NJ, and DE don't mess around, we have check points set up every holiday weekend and if you are a multiple offender you get jail time and lose your license, DE actually puts a device in your cars that acts as a breathalizer, if you have any alcohol on your breath at all the car won't start.

[Oh Em Zee]

We have had smog checkpoints hit every zip code for the entire summer over here. State refs were passed out like valentines cards.
There was less than 1 DUI checkpoint for every smog checkpoint.
The penalty for having an exhaust tip was worse than driving smashed.

[C-Kwik]

Not sure where there is, but I've seen far more attempts in my area (Irvine area) to curb DUI than anything to do with smog. In fact, my GF got pulled over 3 times this year just because she walked out of the pub where a bunch of game devs meet each week. Cant say how this relates to the rest of the state, but my observations are much different than yours. Perhaps you should stick to real data and not your personal observations as a representation of what is really occurring.

As for exhaust tips, if you are actually getting ticketed for it, fight it. The law does not make exhaust tips inherently illegal. Not to mention it would only be a fix-it ticket at best. Even the "charms", tow hooks, and wheels you mention before are not inherently illegal. Perhaps there are some laws it can break from an equipment standpoint, but again, its a fix-it ticket. Equipment violations for smog are certainly more severe, especially if you add stuff that makes it illegal. But a DUI can cost in the thousands by the time the state is done with you.

[Beancooker]

How about the first DUI is a "100% no lawyer will get you out of it" loss of your license for a year.

Second offense is 10 year loss of license.

Third offense is loss of license for life.

If you lose your license for DUI, and are caught driving on your DUI suspended license, it becomes a felony charge.

Just my 2 cents.

[Oh Em Zee]

Just to rant a little harder on my topic;
Police have shut down almost every single car meet this year. Even when on private property with permits, we were chased out and harassed endlessly.
(Cruise to Cruz, Stoneridge meet, Every TapEx meet, endlessly harassed and pushed, ticketed for everything. Even a new car got a ticket for having the dealership paper plate) Cruise to Cruz was not a "sanctioned" event, but the level of police harassment was astounding. Literally following cars for 30 miles, pulling over more than 100 cars (of the ~300 attendees). They were pushed out of public lots even when they were down to only ~20 cars.
I was reported more than 10 Smog checkpoints from Vallejo (North bay) to San Jose (South bay) California in the past two months. There is also a full street blockade on 7th street with more police than you knew existed in the state.
I run several car clubs in the Bay Area, so I am aware of what has been going on.
There has been one reported DUI checkpoint, and an occasional officer outside of bars.

Edit:
There are police officers stationed every ~8 miles on all back roads from around 8p to 3a. (and sprinkled around throughout the clock)
You can't find a police officer in the city to save your life.
This year in the bay area, they have concentrated almost all efforts against any form of modified vehicles.

All of my numbers and info are from the collective information of the ~400 members of local clubs I run.
All I really wish is that they actually spent more time and effort concentrating on DUIs :\