What should be done to stop drink drivers?
11:45 AM Monday Apr 6, 2009Those willing to drive drunk these holidays be warned - police are stepping up efforts to bust drink drivers and you will be caught, they say.
More police and a high number of alcohol checkpoints will appear around Auckland, as the festive season looms, with the clampdown on drunk drivers already pulling in high numbers at the weekend.
At alcohol checkpoints in Papakura and Manukau on Saturday night, police stopped just over 7500 vehicles.
What should be done to stop drink drivers? Here is the latest selection of Your Views:
AKG, Akld (Massey) |
11:42AM Monday, 06 Apr 2009
If you are found to be the cause of an accident after you have been drinking and driving and someone is killed in that accident then you should face a mandatory life sentence in jail. The laws of drinking and driving in NZ are very clear - they are not allowed so if you wilfully and deliberately drink and get behind the wheel of a vehicle then no mercy should be shown to you at all. My greatest concern is the impact the death of an innocent person has on that person's family. There is no excuse to drink and get behind the wheel of a vehicle. Until the Government and the relevant authorities in NZ get tough and stop aiding and abetting these criminals nothing will change and innocent people will continue losing their lives. Driving drunk and killing another person is a form of committing murder in that you make a pre-meditated decision firstly to drink and secondly to get behind the wheel. I have no sympathy at all for drunk drivers.
Recent coverage in the media has drawn attention to drunk women who actually take their young children to school early in the morning when they are drunk - no one will convince me that those mothers are fit to have children in their care. Zero tolerance
Pythag (Auckland Central) |
11:42AM Monday, 06 Apr 2009
Bert, spot on! An undersized snapper has more protection than my wife, sons, daughters, friends and associates when it comes to common sense and value assessment. 12 years ago I was fed up with repeat drunk drivers who eventually killed others. I wrote to Maurice Williamson and was invited to go to Wellington to see the LTSA's; Simon Whitely, Rob Martin and Craig Hill. I had researched the LTSA reports for road carnage and death statistics and devised a simple answer to manage the problem.
If a vehicle (or unlicensed driver) without a WOF or registration approaches a fuel pump for petrol, the pump is programed to recognize the vehicle (like the toll road cameras) and automatically refuses fuel dispensing; no license swiped at the pump, no fuel either. Oh, if your LPG cylinder is not warranted, you cannot fill it with gas, but an unwarranted car gets fuel!
The LTSA team thought forgetful, innocent drivers would suffer and Maurice Williamson told a colleague of mine at the Mystery Creek Field Days last year that "people may not be able to afford WOF and Reg fees."?
This well researched idea, not implemented, has claimed over 400 lives and cost NZ$3B so far. Wake up people!
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You have written a very thoughtful logical piece.
I'm afraid this is the value we put on a human life these days.
It is inconceivable that some of these offenders are appearing before the courts many times only to slapped with a wet bus ticket.
Someone loses their life and we are reluctant to lock them up for a good period of time. Why? Prisons already full, jail is seen as a last resort, jailing someone for 'an accident' is over the top. These kinds of reasons mean politicians keep trying to give us a message that they acknowledge isn't working.
Its time to say enough is enough. Make a harsh example out of a few people and the other drink drivers might sit up and listen.
Too many times tests such as 'of good character' are given to much weight. Someone is only of good character until found out otherwise. Commit a crime you should not be able to call on friends to say you are of good character.
Make an example, harshly of a few.the greater good will be done and change our obsession with the rights of the individual, which currently seems to be valued higher than the greater good.
Kia Kaha Bert.