What should be done with habitual drunk drivers?

Everyday drivers are arrested for ‘driving under the influence’, or ‘driving while intoxicated’ as law enforcement agencies continue to crackdown on these dangerous offenders. For many of these drivers, it will not be their first DUI or DWI offense.

There is very little that can infuriate me more than when I become aware that a drunk driver who killed an innocent person got only five years or less in prison. But what really infuriates me is that a habitual drunk driver who kills an innocent person also gets a slap on his wrist.

Two families in Huston Texas were extremely angry at the sentence a Harris County jury returned for the drunk driver who killed their children. In December 2008, Ineka Marble, while she was driving her car in an intoxicated state, ran a red light and caused the crash which killed Kevin and Christine Bordelon.  After the crash that killed the Bordelon's, police tests showed that Ineka Marble had a blood alcohol level of .269, which is more than three times the legal limit in Texas. A Harris County jury sentenced the driver to four years in prison on each of two counts of intoxication manslaughter. The judge in the case stacked the sentences one on top of another (making them consecutive) so that the drunk driver would spend eight years in prison. She could have received up to 20 years on each count. That comes to four years for each of the deaths she brought about.

A panel of Montgomery County judges in April 2013; significantly reduced the prison sentence of a drunk driver who killed three of his friends in a crash last year, saying he shouldn’t be held responsible for a broader culture of reckless conduct and underage drinking. The three judges cut 12 years from Kevin Coffay’s 20-year sentence. They said he never intended to hurt his friends. Their revised sentence was more in line with Maryland guidelines. That means that this drunken killer will serve at most only 32 months in prison for each of the three deaths. And what makes this sentence even more gross is that under state rules, the drunk driver was eligible for parole as early as May of 2013 and if he was released then, he would have served only 13 months in prison which comes to only a little over four months of incarceration for each of the three deaths.

In January 1998, a judge known for his creative punishments sentenced a Houston teenager who killed two people while driving drunk, to carry pictures of the victims in his wallet for the next 10 years. Judge Ted Poe sentenced Michael Hubacek, 19, to 10 years’ probation after Hubacek pleaded no contest to intoxicated manslaughter charges. Poe imposed strict conditions on the probation, which include erecting a cross and a Star of David at the accident site and maintaining the symbols and the area around them, observing an autopsy of a person killed in a drunken-driving accident and placing flowers on the victims' graves on their birthday for 10 years.

A drunk driver who killed an innocent Winnipeg motorist had won his bid for a reduced sentence. Hugo Sergio Ruizfuentes, 42, was originally given six years in prison and given a 15-year driving prohibition after pleading guilty to the December 2008 tragedy. However the Court of Appeal ruled that the sentencing judge placed too much emphasis on the man’s Highway Traffic Act record. They then reduced his prison term to four-and-a-half years and slashed his motor vehicle ban to seven-and-a-half years. Ruizfuentes ran three consecutive red lights and was speeding before hitting Stoller’s vehicle, which had the right of way.

In Dallas, Texas, the families of two cyclists killed in December 2009 after a drunk driver plowed into them said they are outraged by the sentence given to the man who was behind the wheel. Kenneth Bain was given only two years in prison and ten years’ probation. That comes to 12 months for each death.

A 27-year-old Massachusetts man has had his driver's license taken away more than 20 times. He has served multiple jail sentences, and he has paid thousands of dollars in fines. In spite of these consequences, he has continued to incur charges. Police have repeatedly caught this man driving a car without a proper license, and most times, he was driving with alcohol or illegal drugs in his system or on his person.

A Saskatchewan man described as a serial drunk driver has been sent to prison in July 2013 following his nineteenth conviction for impaired driving. Kenneth Obey 55, was pulled over in August of 2012 and had a blood alcohol reading of two and a half times the legal limit for driving.

The judge also reviewed how Obey had been sentenced for his previous drinking and driving convictions and found the courts had tended to "extreme leniency" in her view. In most cases, she said Obey was given no more than three months in jail. In 2005 he received his longest sentence — 12 months for his 18th conviction on impaired driving. In addition to the three and a half years in prison, Obey was given a 15-year ban on driving. Since he hadn’t killed or injured anyone as a result of his drunk driving, I think the sentence in this particular case was justified.

 

For Linda Davis, the violent death of her mother in a three-car collision on Highway 12 in January 2009 felt like a really bad sense of déjà vu. Ten years previously, her 19-year-old son was struck and killed in west Santa Rosa by a DWI driver. Just one day before the anniversary of his death, her mother, Beverly Rick, was killed in a collision with a car driven by 52-year-old Rosanne Starr Webb, who also died in the crash. Webb had a long history of drunken-driving convictions and was wanted for failing to appear in court to answer a DWI charge.

Five days later, Santa Rosa police responded to another major-injury collision after 35-year-old Mike Tweedie of Santa Rosa flipped his pickup several times and struck two girls waiting at a bus stop with their father. Tweedie, who had three previous DUI convictions and was suspected of driving under the influence, fled the scene. He was later arrested and held in jail lieu of $190,000 bail.

In September, 2012, the Department of Motor Vehicles in the State of New York issued emergency regulations for those who have been charged with multiple drunk or drugged driving convictions. If a person has 2 or more DUI convictions or incidents in a 25 year period, they will not be able to receive an unrestricted driver's license after completing the mandatory DDP program. The driver cannot apply for relicensing until the statutory minimum revocation period has passed. When any of these highway thugs applies for relicensing, the DMV will review their driving record for the rest of their lives, to ensure the drivers do not have more DUI charges.

If a driver has 3 DUI convictions within 25 years of a revocable offense, and the revocable offense was not a serious driving offense, their license will be revoked for the statutory revocation period along with adding two more years to the revocation period. When the driver gets their license back, they will have a problem driver restriction for two years, as well. Depending on prior offenses, they may lose their license and face jail time. If the driver's revocable offense was not a serious driving offense, and the first revocation was a DUI conviction, their license will be revoked for five years in addition to the statutory revocation period.

In the provinces of Ontario, Road side suspensions are separate and distinct from any criminal charges a driver faces in court. The Reduced Suspension with Ignition Interlock Conduct Review Program will allow eligible drivers convicted for a first time of an alcohol-impaired driving offence under the Criminal Code on or after August 3, 2010 to reduce their licence suspension in return for meeting specific requirements, such as the mandatory installation of an approved ignition interlock device in their vehicle.

Drivers who are caught driving while their licence is suspended for a Criminal Code driving conviction will have the vehicle they are driving impounded for a minimum of 45 days and face fines from $5,000 to $50,000. The storage charges will also be high.

Effective December 1, 2010, drivers who are required to have a vehicle ignition interlock device and are caught driving without such a device face a 7-day vehicle impoundment.  As well, drivers caught while driving under specific HTA licence suspensions, including those under the warn range, also face a 7-day vehicle impoundment.

Drunk drivers who are convicted of driving while their licence is suspended for a Criminal Code conviction face high fines under the Highway Traffic Act: $5,000 - $25,000 for a first conviction and $10,000 - $50,000 for subsequent convictions.

A heavily intoxicated William Fogal fell into a wood pile, knocking himself unconscious, before he decided to get behind the wheel of a truck, a Sudbury, Ontario court heard in December 2010. Fogal pleaded guilty to impaired driving and driving while disqualified. Fogal's blood alcohol levels registered at 260 and 250 milligrams which is more than three times the legal limit to drive. Fogal had a previous conviction for dangerous driving and other convictions for driving while his licence was suspended. The court felt that enough is enough and although he hadn’t injured anyone during his drunken driving, the judge awarded him with a lifetime ban from ever driving again.

There are thousands of others driving with multiple convictions. Unless a drunken driver injures or kills someone, they are likely back on the road within months of their hearings.

Drivers such as the aforementioned drunk drivers clearly pose a threat to others. They often are the cause of accidents and injuries that could have been prevented had they been sober. If repeat offenders will not stop drinking and driving, then they should be treated, not like a drunk driver that simply used bad judgment, but rather like any other criminal that has intentionally attempted to harm others and accordingly should be locked up for a great many years. The public has a right to be protected from these criminals who have no consideration whatsoever of others on the road.

I feel that anyone who kills anyone while in a drunken state should be sent to prison for a minimum fifteen-year prison term and their licence suspended for ten years after their release from prison. If they killed two persons, the incarceration should be twenty years and a fifteen-year suspension of driving privileges. If they kill three or more persons, they should be sentenced to prison for twenty-five years and be given a lifetime ban from driving.

I realize that these sentences would be harsh penalties but considering the fact that these drunken killers have snuffed out the lives of human beings because of their criminal conduct on the road, I think that such sentences are appropriate. I am convinced that if any of my readers lost a loved one because a drunken thug who chose to get behind the wheel of his vehicle and barrel down the road without thinking of the enormous damaged he or she would cause to the lives of others, would find such sentences quite reasonable.

Further, I also believe that anyone who is convicted of three incidents of drunk driving should be given a lifetime ban from driving again. If they after receiving that lifetime ban are caught driving again, for the first offence, they should be given one year in prison. For a second Offence, five years in prison and for a third offence, ten years in prison. If while they are driving while under suspension they are also drunk, they should be sentenced to a minimum of 15 years in prison. And if while driving while under suspension, they kill another person because of their drunkenness, they should be sentenced to a minimum of 25 years in prison.

It is imperative that we stop these drunken louts from sitting behind the wheels of their vehicles and if giving severe penalties will deter others from doing what these louts are doing, then the sentences will serve their purposes. If it isn’t that much of a deterrent, at least the public will be protected from those louts who are incarcerated.