A new DUI law is enforced. Car seized...

[mella l]

Thank you Rob for posting the article.

What I found most informative is EACH county needs to enforce this!

"It's like a lot of laws we pass," Hanabusa said. "It's always up to the respective counties and agencies to enforce it."


Also a thanks to Mr. Roth for beginning this enforcement, a beginning.
I particularly liked his description of the crime of DUI.


Hawaii County Deputy Prosecutor Mitch Roth anticipates enforcing it on a regular basis now that the first application is underway. He said cars are deadly when in the possession of repeat DUI offenders.

"It's like pointing a loaded weapon randomly and playing Russian roulette with the community. This takes that weapon away," said Roth, who handles much of the criminal forfeiture proceedings for the Big Island.

M

One other description of the crime of DUI was told to me by a prosecuting attorney. He describes an impaired driver as


"A person with a high powered rifle (no sight necessary) standing on a hillside overlooking a stadium full of people and taking pot shots into the assembly". Nothing personal, and everyone is a potential target.

Food for thought.

mella l

[Kapohocat]

http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-drivin...stics.html

Hawaii, Rhode Island and DC take the cake (or bottle as it may be).

[mella l]

Thanks for the statistics Cat. Very interesting. Think I'll look up per capita statistics also. I liked the statement

"Drunk driving is no accident",

and neither is driving drunk.

mella l

[james weatherford]

Aloha from New Zealand (finishing 2nd of 3rd week here -- back in Puna 21 Jan).

Recent article here in New Zealand Herald (look online; I will try later to link): Australia is developing, and New Zealand watching with interest, satellite technology to deter 'serial' speeders. Three ways it can work...sound an alarm when speeding, slowing the vehicle when speeding occurs, or turning off the engine!
Not crazy 'bout big bro, however, speeders kill and maim.

...jail? no -- that is just advanced training for criminals.

...for DUI, speeding, illegal passing, etc., take away the car, the ability to register another vehicle, and the ability to get a drivers license. At least, for a prolonged period. What happens if I go down the street shooting a gun? or swinging an axe handle? ...cars are very dangerous when not safely operated.

Sure, some will get other cars and cause problems. But we must not wait for a perfect solution before implementing solutions better than we now have.

James Weatherford, Ph.D.
15-1888 Hialoa
Hawaiian Paradise Park

[Kapohocat]

How about better public transportation?

[billy]

Here in arizona the new law is 1o days in jail and if you blow over .15 its 60 days in jail with no bail and i dont know the law if you are caught again in 5 yrs but it could not be good. there is a phoenix suns basketball player his mom crashed on freeway and hurt the person riding with her and she is in jail for 3 yrs no bailthe state of arizona has no problem locking you up.At the intersection where i live there is about 8 wrecks a month and aleast three of them are drunk drivers the crashes wake us up and we go and watch the police do there thing,its very sad to see them haul away someone dead while the drunk sits in the patrol car enjoying his buzz.

[gtill]

Prison trains criminals jail makes you miserable. However the Arizona prison keeps em busy and miserable.

The van cam was an effective speed reducer, but caused near insurrection by those cited. Even though it did work. AWACS against civilians sounds great, mabe their laser tech would really put a stop to speeding, strike 3 and you're disintegrated.

The argument would be the same as van cams, How can you know who was driving! Next step driver chip(inbody) to get a license. With added chips with tickets to increase your signal.

[mella l]

I could rant on about the prisons also but won't today, to beautiful of a day.

As far as punishment for impared driving, well for first offense, no injury victums, a warning and an education of the lack of regard for human life, the perpitrators life as well as the unsuspecting potential victums life.

Most people who are honest with themselves will realise that perhaps at least once in their lives, they too made the mistake of driving under the influence. I did it once and luckily when I came to the next morning realised I could have killed myself or someone else, and never ever did it again! The learning curve. One mistake take a lesson, pay a fine, get the s**t scared out of ya.

Mistake number two, well a very different story now as you know whats up, buzzed driving is impared driving. Punishment number two for second offense, THE CAR, THE WEAPON, is taken to an impound lot, reduced to a 3 X 3 foot cube and sent to Japan for recycling! No exceptions, a HumV, grannies car, aunties car, brahs car, no exceptions gone pau. Oh and the stay in the pokey for 2 months no bail, no do your sentence for one week a year for 9 years.

Just how I see it.

mella l

[gtill]

The van cam took pictures of the front license and speed travelled by laser measurment. As an everyday commuter I can attest it worked, the morning trip was much mellowerer and still got there.
But the backlash was incredible, they caught off duty cops and lawyers. Because of a dim witted manager, the tickets started at 2 miles over, labelling it as a moneygrab, which it was, but when raised to 9 over it still worked.

However the die had been cast, now the problem was how can you say who was driving, Who was at the wheel. Which led to the window tinting regs. However the stoplight cameras do give a clear picture of who is in the front seat, and sometimes not the wive/husband the tickets were sent by mail, ruining some marriages, "invasion of privacy"
Catching speeders is a hard enough task without a blue gumball machine on top, the next step was unmarked camaro and sport type cars, taken from convicted drug dealers working with blue whites did good for awhile, but were soon known to the frequent flyers discontinued now.

If a criminal is holed up with an uzi and a 50cal machine gun, are you going to respond with 50 regular officers or 1 accomplished sniper and and rifle to match.

Are you going to give them tools, or time spent on enforcment. Actually a lot of cops like traffic because the court challenges represent overtime!

Life sucks, then you die!

[gtill]

Mabe out looking for crime!
Seriously, have you ever asked for a ride along. Police were allowing citizen rides, it would be an interesting experience. Try it you might be surprised.
Ranting won't do much good!