Different ways to reduce drunken driving
A vehicle crashed into a Deer Park nail salon June 28, killing four people, injuring nine and destroying the business. The driver has been charged with drunken driving. Credit: Paul Mazza
There is no Democrat or Republican, liberal or conservative, who cannot agree that DWI fatalities and maimings have been a cancer in our society [“Advocates: drop in BAC limit will save lives,” News, July 10].
We have reduced the blood alcohol content limit from .10% to .08%. Have lives been saved? Sure. Now legislators want to reduce the BAC limit to .05%. Will lives be saved? Sure.
How much is a life worth? There is NO monetary number. Let’s finally install interlock ignition devices in EVERY vehicle. Is it costly? Sure. How much is a life worth?
— Roger Rothman, Commack
Kudos to Newsday for highlighting this horrendous problem. Not a week goes by that we don’t see the carnage that selfish drunken drivers inflict on our communities. I believe that the fault in our system lies not in BAC numbers but in the failure of the legal system.
We’ve seen too many light sentences for killing others with motor vehicles. Leniency in sentencing is the problem. Legislation is needed to end this endless carousel of catch and release. Enact stricter sentencing guidelines such as requiring longer prison times, lifetime probation, and vehicle Breathalyzer installations (if not permanent license revocations).
— Arthur James, Massapequa Park
Change the DWI limit to the impaired level. You are either intoxicated or you are not. But also change the penalties for drunken driving to incarceration for the first offense, no plea bargaining allowed, with imprisonment for a minimum of six months providing there have been no injuries, in which case the incarceration time should be longer. Increase penalties for each additional DWI arrest.
Citizens do not like going to jail. A vehicle is a potential thousand-pound killing machine with a drunken person behind the wheel.
I know imprisonment is not part of the agenda of our Albany politicians.
But something must change.
— Joe Alagna, Levittown
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