Minnesota needs tougher drunken driving penalties

Dave A.
01/12/2010 10:34 PM

Tougher DWI laws? Minnesota already has laws that punish an offender both administratively and criminally for DWI. We can make them as tough as you want but do we really want to be filling up prisons with DWI offenders? There's difficulty in crafting legislation in this area and these laws are already being tweaked all the time. The tendency is to react to these stories. Laws that are adopted on the basis of one, two, three incidents truly carry with it the law of unintended consequences. My experience with offenders is that the classification as a felony vs. a misdemeanor will not deter many people from drunk driving. Well, you pick a number, first of all. How many times should a drunk driver be allowed to drive drunk before it's a felony? You say it shouldn't be four. Should it be three? Should it be two? Should all DWIs be felonies, thus sending everyone off to prison in a state that's had already the second-highest increase in imprisoned population this decade?

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Billy Bob O.
01/07/2010 2:20 PM

first DWI/DUI needs 3 yr mandatory and everyone after that adds 2 yrs so if your on your third DWI you got 7 yrs in prison after you have served 3 and 5 respectively. People will start running out of life by the time they hit their 4th and 5th ones. Just be glad its not as strict as some countries. Just look it up on wiki...drunk driving law by country

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Rick H.
01/06/2010 4:21 PM

While I agree that drunk driving is a very serious and deadly issue I don't feel that making tougher laws will really help that much. A vehicle that is equipped with a device that would not allow the vehicle to be started is simply limiting the vehicle and not the driver. In other words, it would be easy for the driver to simply borrow a vehicle from another person. (The other technological answer would be for ALL vehicles to have some sort of sobriety tester in them. That is just too Big Brother like for me.) The idea that making repeat drunk driving a felony would help is also questionable. Even first or second time drunk drivers already face hefty fines, jail time, and increase in insurance rates. I feel that the best way to combat repeat drunk driving is the one that is already in place. Have stiff punishments for any drunk driving; encourage treatment when appropriate; and continue education so that drunk driving of any sort is considered inappropriate by society. Finally, we can continue to encourage auto manufacturers to make safer and safer cars so that in the unfortunate case we are involved in an accident with a drunk driver all can walk away safely.

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