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A year-ending post with a pre-party reminder of the harms of drinking and driving

By Douglas A. Berman

Inspired in part by this news report from CNN, headlined "Barkley 'disappointed' after DUI arrest," I will conclude my postings for 2008 with a year-end reminder about the harms of the crime of drinking and driving.  As regular readers know, I am often amazed and annoyed that even repeat drunk driving offenses rarely lead to severe punishments ? especially given the extreme sentences often imposed on other "risk-regulation" crimes like felon-in-possession gun laws or failure-to-register sex offender laws.  The reason I am annoyed is principally because drinking and driving results in more avoidable deaths and other harms than most other crimes combined.  Let's start with deaths.  As detailed in this official NTHSA report, about 13,000 Americans are killed each and every year in alcohol-impaired driving crashes...continue to full post

Full post as published by Sentencing Law and Policy on December 31, 2008 (boomark / email).