Drunk driving

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The UK also has graphic advertisements, not sure about the Republic of Ireland though. They have had little effect so far.

 

In Slovak Republic, the state managed to collect quite a lot of money with Operation Hawk. It first happened at Easter, but they have repeated it several times, and the neighbour countries also plan to join.

Hawk is an intensive operation to catch drivers violating the rules in any way, and they also check bicycle riders.
Operation Hawk was very successful first, however, lately it seems that drivers don't really change their driving style. They pay the fine and then keep driving without changes, often not realising the danger they will cause.

 

Dark Thorne:

First off, get rid of the TV and any Luxuries. Why should the taxpayers pay for these guys to watch TV or whatever. We have to pay for our own luxuries, they should too. And since they aren't out working, they should get none.

Second, leave them locked in their cells longer. That's less strain on the guards. Let them out only a few at a time (not all at once). This reduces the risks of riots and the like.

Third, why are we paying for their education? I've been looking at going back to school, but the course I want is too expensive and I can't do it because I don't have the money. If I can't be re-trained for new employment opportunities on taxpayer dollars, why should people who break the laws set for the protection of the people who actually pay taxes get a free ride?

Fourth, Rights of prisoners are taken too seriously by those of us on the outside. They are in there because they violated our rights, remember? I like the Idea proposed by Hobbes in the Leviathan: The law is there to protect the people. If you break the law, then the law owes you no such protection. Since they broke the law, the rights that law protects should not be granted them for the duration of their sentence...

I apologize if that sounds callous, but really, Drunk Driving is a problem, and as long as we're not willing to do anything about it, we're stuck with it. Sometimes these answers aren't easy to tolerate, but it's what must be done.

Either that or return to the days of Porhibition. Make drinking a beer the same charge as snorting a line of cocaine. Would that help reduce Impaired driving?

 

Following Aikanaro's post, the same goes in NZ. We have a huge TV advertising campaign based around the slogan:

"If you drink, then drive, you're a bloody idiot"

It has a variety of different angles on the whole drink driving issue, ranging from the graphic (bodies on the road), to the social (likeable and 'cool' characters who choose to crash - no pun intended - at their mates place and party all night rather than drive home drunk) to the practical (showing someone losing their job because they have been banned from driving) to the emotional (someone killing their best mate while drunk). The variety of approaches hopes to find that one vulnerable part of each person's point of view that changes how they think about drunk driving.

 

Off topic, so I'll make it short (it may be worth an own thread, true): locking up drunk drivers, cutting costs of the penal system.

a) The main costs arise from the personnel as shown above. TV sets cost next to nothing. You may reduce the costs from 40,000$ to 39,950$ (per prisoner p.a.). Is it worth the effort? The prison is the costly part of the prison. The only way to reduce costs efficiently would be to get rid of the penal system. That's a fact.
b) Why do we educate prisoners? Whoa. If you think prison is a stroll in the park, prisoners live a life surrounded by luxury and get the best education money can buy - well, what stops you to commit murder to join the lucky lot? Off you go, have fun. Seriously: a prison sentence should not only be preventative in the sense of someone who's locked up can not really commit a crime (well, almost). It should provide the means for the offender to mend his ways and provide the possibilities for living an honest life after the sentence is over. Exactly how many people are going to be resocialized if you lock 'em up in their cells for 23,5 h a day, with no books, no tv sets, no eductation? For, say, eight years? Better lock them away eternally then.

Gnarfflinger's forth point: have you ever been to a prison? Do you have some first hand expeience of how we overvalue the rights of the prisoners? What rights would those exactly be? Please add some meat to your statement before we go on over how life is paradise in our prisons today...

BTW, and on topic again (more or less) the problem is not just drunk driving but alcohol in general. The prohibition idea is not the worst. OK, it is not really realistic and there's no way to achieve prohibition. But from a fundamentalistic point of view I don't see why we (as society) should tolerate something that costs billions of health care and is responsible for numerous deaths and tragedies each year. Drunk driving is only a small part of the whole complex issue.

 

My point is either treat Drunk driving as a crime and those who do it as criminals, or quit complaining about it. And if we have to find ways to reduce the cost of incarceration, then so be it. In Canada, Healthcare and Education have already been gutted to pay for the corruption of our politicians, why not prisons?

 

If you drive while drunk, you are willfuly endangering the lives of literally everyone who gets anywhere near your car. Therefore, numerous years of incarceration is not in any conceivable way an unreasonable punishment.

And if you kill someone while driving drunk, you really ought to get life in prison. A few decades at the minimum.

Ah well. I suppose criminals ought to be thankful I'm not a judge