Came across this campaign from the Texas Dept. of Transportation that’s hard to look at. Wondering who this is aimed at though. Is it meant to raise awareness of the DWI problem in general? Ok, but is seeing the results a deterrent if the penalty for the drunk driver seems so light? The person who caused Jacqueline Saburido’s accident also killed two people–yet he only got seven years and a $20,ooo fine. Wouldn’t stiffer penalties do as much to prevent as disturbing images? If you knew that were you to get caught for a DWI over the legal limit–even though nobody got hurt–that you would lose your license forever, wouldn’t that have an effect ahead of time? Sure some would still try and get around it. (After all, locks are only for honest people.) It’d still make a helluva lot more people think twice. And if a few people died as a result of DWI? Is seven years really justice?Monday, April 2, 2007
Who does this get through to?
Came across this campaign from the Texas Dept. of Transportation that’s hard to look at. Wondering who this is aimed at though. Is it meant to raise awareness of the DWI problem in general? Ok, but is seeing the results a deterrent if the penalty for the drunk driver seems so light? The person who caused Jacqueline Saburido’s accident also killed two people–yet he only got seven years and a $20,ooo fine. Wouldn’t stiffer penalties do as much to prevent as disturbing images? If you knew that were you to get caught for a DWI over the legal limit–even though nobody got hurt–that you would lose your license forever, wouldn’t that have an effect ahead of time? Sure some would still try and get around it. (After all, locks are only for honest people.) It’d still make a helluva lot more people think twice. And if a few people died as a result of DWI? Is seven years really justice?
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"Only" seven years in prison? For a crime with no intent (by definition)? Either you've never been inside a prison or you aren't being realistic about what having seven years taken out of your life and spent in prison hell would mean for you and your family.
No, stiffer penalties would not and do not prevent this - in Texas some people get LIFE for multiple DWIs, and still people commit the crime because it's addiction driven, not volitional. The ad campaign is almost certainly more effective, dollar for dollar.
Yeah. Only seven. I know full well it's a problem of addiction. And I would say the the majority of people who this reaches aren’t out of control, they just need to think about their choices more before they go out. As the saying goes, locks are for honest people, and a thief will get in no matter what. Same with addiction. No PSA can reach someone who’s an addict unless they first want to change. (Meth addicts break into houses and kill looking for a fix.)
Those are the ones that need targeting as much as the casual/social drinker. If the threat of stiffer penalties curb them from killing someone accidently, that’s not a bad thing.
You say seven is a lot. It is. But the person made that choice when they got drunk and got behind a wheel. I don’t feel sorry for them or their family, because it’s not about them if someone dies as a result of their DUI. (I’d even say they’d be lucky. From what I’ve read about penalties around the world for DUI, a person caught driving under the influence might be shot dead in some places.)
But if they got seven? At least they still have the rest of their lives to think about what they did.
The victim’s family has the rest of their lives without their loved one. Hardly justice let alone fair.
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