Get tough on DWI offenders, killers

There is so much outrage near the Oklahoma-Texas border, it isn’t funny. The people around Sherman are struggling with the situation behind the deaths of 10 people (from two families) by one drunken truck driver.
The prosecutor has announced a potential 10-year sentence for the driver, which is outrageous considering the severity of the accident, and it has people up in arms.
The problem falls behind the law. The maximum penalty for intoxication manslaughter is 20 years in jail. Murderers, however, face the death penalty, or at least, life in prison. But drunk drivers seem to have special protection in Texas.
That same story can be played out in any region of Texas, from the time when the lives of four dead female classmates near Brock were snuffed out to something that has affected your neighborhood. It is so repetitive it has become mind-numbing. I’m sure you know of someone whose life has been crushed by a similar tragedy.
In my mind, it is murder. When you climb into a two-ton machine, unable to properly operate that vehicle, and still decide to drive, you endanger every life in close proximity. It is more than just a case of being “a little too sloshed” to drive; it is criminal.
Sadly, the offenders are often repeat offenders, even when injuries or fatalities are involved. Too much leniency is exhibited and there seems to be little in the way of deterrence to keep these law-breakers away from you and me. What happened to personal responsibility?
When someone is killed, it should be (at least) second-degree murder – punishable by the same standards of law. After all, it IS a conscious decision to begin drinking and get into that car.
It should be attempted murder. That’s the charge that was leveled in the infamous hit-and-run of an Irving waitress in the parking lot of a Bennigan’s restaurant. Being run down by a car means usage of a deadly weapon.
As you can guess, I house NO sympathy for drunk drivers, especially ones who have taken human life. I’ve known too many people who have had their lives ripped apart because of the actions of a drunk driver.
A close friend lost her father when she was just 12 and never got the chance to hear his sage advice, see her walk down the aisle to marry her fine husband or play with his two grandchildren. She would cry often at the mere memory of what might have been.
And it’s all because someone consumed too much alcohol, put their brain in the glove compartment and decided to drive a car totally impaired. For this crime, that man who killed my friend’s father was put BACK on probation. I’m sure his wrists got slapped in the process. Ouch, ooh that hurt!
But that was about it; which is a crime in itself. We treat a gaggle of non-violent, non-property offenders in a far more Jean Valjean-manner. We’ve had an ongoing, long-standing failing “war on drugs,” but have NEVER declared the same heavy-handed initiative against drunk, murderous drivers.
Since they are in their bi-anneum session, everyone should urge their state legislators, and various courts, to take this heinous crime far more seriously. Lock these people up; keep them off the road ... by any means necessary.
Please! Attack this problem by strengthening the penalties and changing attitudes. Here are a few suggestions:
• outlaw ANY kind of open container of alcohol in a moving vehicle (visual of consumption should NOT be the criteria for a ticket);
• restrict (no, actually, ban) the sale of large single quan­tity (anything over 24 ounces) bottles and cans of beer (which has been done before in Fort Worth);
• impound licenses and vehicles for initial convictions; that the loss of a license permanent if a fatality is involved (a driver’s license is a privilege, not a God-given birthright. Screw up big time and you lose that luxury behind the wheel);
• upgrade “vehicular manslaughter” to second-degree mur­der (in reality, what is the difference between killing a human being with a gun, knife, drugs or a car?). Repeat offenders should be subject to first-degree charges. If you are involved in more than one fatal DWI, to me, you’re a serial killer.
The public should put this issue on the same plateau as other pro-family issue – trying to protect the lives of children and adults. Vote out judges who are lackadaisical and far too lenient in sentencing DWI offenders, or who fail to set bonds high enough to keep these menaces off the roads.
Then perhaps many more families will shed fewer tears because unchecked potential killers will be behind bars instead of terrorizing the streets.
We’d all sleep a little sounder if these idiots were forced to walk … or take a cab.