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While driving to work this morning, I heard on the radio that members of the state Assembly will be introducing a bill that would impose tougher penalties on repeat drunken drivers. I was happy to hear that our elected officials have completed this bill, a bill that is much needed and long over due.
The bill details that after a person's fourth offense, a felony would be imposed with up to three years in prison, regardless of when the charge is filed. Under current laws in Wisconsin, a fourth offense is considered a misdemeanor and only a felony if it was committed within five years of the third offense. I support dropping this stipulation because drunk drivers don't always get caught...you better believe some are still driving drunk in between those offenses, but just aren't getting pulled over.
Maximum prison sentences for fifth and sixth offenses will also rise under this bill. So will seventh, eighth and ninth offenses (isn't it terrible that it even goes this high?!) A tenth offense would nab a person 10 years in prison, but is a year for each offense really enough when a repeat offender has reached this point?
We need better (and tougher) laws on drunken driving in Wisconsin. People, parents and families shouldn't have to worry about these impaired people on the road. If laws were tougher, maybe drunk drivers would learn from the first and second offenses and try harder to eliminate their terrible habit.
I hope our governor will approve this bill as it is what I believe a good first step in the right direction in regards to repeat drunken drivers.
And to those who will disregard this new law, those who will continue to drive drunk, thinking they're invincible, that they'll never be caught, I'll leave you with this quote from Budweiser's Super Bowl 50 commercial featuring Helen Mirren:
"The collective we are dumbfounded that people still drive drunk. So I'll sum it up like this. If you drive drunk, you, simply put, are a short-sighted, utterly useless, oxygen-wasting human form of pollution. A Darwin award-deserving, selfish coward...Now the chances are you're a fun, solid, respectable human being. Don't be pillock. Your friends and family thank you. The friends and family of other drivers thank you. Your future self thanks you."