One drink DUI? Feds want lower threshold for drunk driving

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**NuggzTheNinja**

LordofHats wrote:
Honestly, this strikes me as being less about public safety and more about generating more revenue from traffic tickets.

Bingo.

People blowing .05 or .08 aren't killing people. Reducing the limit isn't going to stop drunks from blowing a .20. This is about filling jails and generating revenue.

Texting generates more traffic accidents than drinking. How about we figure out a fix for that before we criminalize non-threats?

**Dreadclaw69**

My own personal opinion is that I would not drink and then drive. Part of it is the fact that I'm still on a learner's permit, the other part is that I would rather not take the chance of harming someone were it was easily avoided, or having a record.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Frazzled wrote:

1) This is a state issue. I object strongly to the nanny state at the federal level.
2) The current standard is perfectly adequate. The concept of “no fatalities” from drunk driving is not realistic in a democracy with things like rights and personal freedom.
3) I’m already sick of constitutional violations with “no refusal” stops, blanket road searches of all vehicles, yet repeat offenders are allowed to repeat. If you get two DUIs you should go to jail until you die.

Well said.

**Vulcan**

Frazzled wrote:
If you get two DUIs you should go to jail until you die.

Better yet, treat it like what it is. We've been hammering away at 'don't drink and drive, you could kill someone' for decades. DUI is attempted murder, killing someone while under the influence is murder.

It would either make people more careful in their drinking habits, or it would get them out of the way once and for all.

**Frazzled**

Vulcan wrote:
Frazzled wrote:
If you get two DUIs you should go to jail until you die.

Better yet, treat it like what it is. We've been hammering away at 'don't drink and drive, you could kill someone' for decades. DUI is attempted murder, killing someone while under the influence is murder.

It would either make people more careful in their drinking habits, or it would get them out of the way once and for all.

That is often treated as such, but not often enough. Statutorily declare it intentional manslaughter.
But thats same to same for any drug taken. As we're shifting into the Colorado culture, it should be the same. Drive under the influence and hurt someone, get hammered.

**Dreadclaw69**

Frazzled wrote:
That is often treated as such, but not often enough. Statutorily declare it intentional manslaughter.
But thats same to same for any drug taken. As we're shifting into the Colorado culture, it should be the same. Drive under the influence and hurt someone, get hammered.

I'm surprised that there hasn't been a push, on both sides of the pond, to make the penalty for injury or death by drink driving more severe. Its not as if the public are unaware of the potential consequences of getting behind the wheel intoxicated.
I think that the ad campaign in Northern Ireland is pretty effective at getting that message across

Spoiler for those who may not want to watch

Spoiler:

**SilverMK2**

The UK as a whole has a series of very good anti drink-driving adds, some of which focus on the possibility of killing someone, either a person on the street, a passenger in the car or yourself, and some of which look at the effects of losing your licence and dealing with the stigma of DUI.

**azazel the cat**

In BC, the advertising tends to focus much more on the likelihood of getting caught, rather than the penalty insofar as deterrence is concerned.