DUI PUNISHMENT IN FLORIDA IS A JOKE
...the St. Petersburg Times. It states, “East Lake- a man convicted of DUI manslaughter for a 1994 wreck that killed an Oldsmar couple was recently charged with drunk driving on the same stretch of road where the deadly crash happened nine years ago” (St. Petersburg Times). Charles Hamilton was driving the wrong way down Tampa Road when he almost hit two cars head-on. When police stopped him, his blood alcohol level was nearly three times the legal limit. This is outrageous! After killing two people he hadn’t learned his lesson. It may be a case of bad judgment the first time, but after that there are no more excuses. Why was Mr. Hamilton able to commit this offense again? An accident by an alcohol impaired driver is the most frequently committed violent crime in the United States today, but the punishment for DUI and DUI Manslaughter are at separate ends of the spectrum. DUI Manslaughter is a level eight, second degree felony (Online Sunshine). This crime carries a maximum of fifteen years in prison and permanent revocation of one’s driver’s license by the DMV. Rightly so, one might say, because manslaughter is committed when a death is involved. But the real crime is when one gets behind the wheel to drive after consuming alcohol. It all boils down to luck. If one is lucky he or she can get home safely without an accident, even though risk is involved. On the other hand, unlucky people will have an accident and someone may die. How does luck play into it? Well one can call it: God’s blessing, the force being with you, or whatever you wish. However it can’t be called skill, because once impaired reaction time decreases, vision is blurred and decisions are based on impulse and not on reason. A study titled “Relative Risk of Fatal Crash Involvement by BAC, Age, and gender” reports that with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .02, one is 1.4 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash (MADD). Furthermore with a BAC of .10 which is just above the legal limit, one is forty-eight times more times likely to be involved in a fatal accident. Why is the legal limit .08 when this study shows impairment with just a .02 blood alcohol concentration? A BAC of .02 is equivalent to a 170 pound man drinking two and a half beers or a 137 pound woman consuming one and a half beers. So the judicial system hammers people convicted of DUI Manslaughter, when in all reality DUI offenders are breaking the same law but they are “lucky”. Now what the two criminal charges do have in common is driving under the influence; that’s where the first law is broken. “Each year 708,000 people are injured in alcohol related accidents. Of every 200 to 2,000 alcohol impaired drivers on the road, only one is arrested” (DUI Statistics). Therefore, the probability of getting caught is slim. Of those who are caught, very few receive a serious penalty. National Geographic recently stated that alcohol abuse costs American society $136 billion and 65,000 lives annually. But there is good news, some states are taking action and acting on these costly and unnecessary crimes. In Montana a proposed bill is working its way through the legislative system. DUI Initiative No. 135 suggests the first conviction of DUI to be p...