04 November 2009

I can't believe this. Ok I can, but yeesh.



(Photograph copyright 2009, all rights reserved)

Ok. I have to post this article Driver in fatal crash, etc. that was in the paper this morning. Last week a woman was struck and killed while at a crosswalk. The driver of the car was drunk and blew through a red light at a terrific rate of speed. His victim was seven months pregnant and died almost instantly. Her baby was delivered at the hospital and might have survived had it not been so dreadfully injured in the accident.

The guy that killed her had 15 convictions for license violations. 15. Un-freakin'-believable. His Mommy said that he "never ran a red light", which tells you what a moron she is. You have to read the entire article, though. As things stand now, license violations are impossible to enforce. They write tickets. People go to jail for a month or so. That's it.

Lawmakers across the country have tried to solve this problem for years. The most effective way to do it is, when someone is caught driving without a license, to confiscate the vehicle they're driving. Period. Gone. Never to return. It doesn't even matter whose car it is - the assumption is that whoever was stupid enough to lend the idiot his/her car is as culpable as the driver. Now we know this works. Other countries just don't have this problem, or not to the extent it exists here.

However....and it's the big however... these laws can't get passed here because every time someone tries to bring it up for a vote, the screaming starts. The loudest faction, and the one that (in my opinion) HAS to bear some responsibilities for these needless deaths, is the one that says that confiscating cars discriminates against illegal immigrants. Seriously. They say that. It's like giving assholes who have lost their licenses free rein to kill or maim at random.

Now I am so liberal that liberals give me funny looks. I think that the whole situation regarding who is "illegal" in this country is ridiculous. (BTW yes, I have permanent resident status.) All you have to do is live in Texas for 15 minutes to see just how crucial these people are to the economy. We need a guest worker program of some sort, because we all know that no "real American" is going to do what these people do for those wages. This is one of those issues that's going to come up and bite us all on our collective ass one day, and so it should.

But the cars... I can't think of a better deterrent than kicking some jerk out of his car on the side of the road, calling a tow truck and letting said jerk walk home after he/she is informed that the car is being sold at auction. Some people will probably have to go through this more than once, but seriously, most people can't buy enough cars to do this more than....I don't know...twice?

I also apply this to people who drive drunk. The first time the car is towed and can be retrieved after a hefty fine is paid. Do it again and sayonara car. Like most people, I'm good and tired of hearing about drunks killing people on the roads.

So what do you think? Does this make sense? It's really the only thing I can think of that would pose a real deterrent to the idiots behind the wheel.

10 comments:

  1. Ok, I know I'm posting to my post here, but when I was fixing the link to the article, I noticed that it's been released that the driver was under the influence of cocaine (as well as alcohol). I wonder if his Mommy is going to scream and rant that her son never does drugs and wouldn't even know what to do with cocaine if you gave it to him?

    Oh Messy, you cynic, you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Clearly someone held her son down, poured coke up his nose while holding his mouth shut so he'd have to inhale, then sat in the car behind the drivers seat and covered his eyes as he was approaching that intersection.
    What happened to this person you ask? Beamed out by aliens.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm a fan of the confiscate the cars thing, myself. But that's just me.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Equal parts "confiscate the car", fine the driver and the registered owner of the vehicle enough money that it would be a real painful penalty ($5,000 ought to do it), and put the driver in six months' worth of "go to your room and think about what you've done" at the county jail.

    I'm conservative enough to make me the political love child of Glenn Beck and Leni Riefenstahl, so of course I favor the solution that falls on the side of law and order.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ah Fox, we are not so different after all (politics notwithstanding)!

    For most of these jerks, I don't even think jail would be necessary - barring injuries, of course. I'm a huge fan of hitting people where it hurts the most, and that would be the wallet.

    No public transit? Shoulda thought of that...

    ReplyDelete
  6. MWAHAHAHAHAAHA! Love it, Messy!

    BTW, completely off topic. I finished An Echo In Bone....Good read, but WHY DID SHE END IT THERE??? Ok, now I'm going to be going through DT's for another 2-5 years. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  7. Libby - What was with all that furious matchmaking, anyway? Is she getting ready for The Next Generation? Plus there's the Jeremy thing...

    Oh, dear.

    ReplyDelete
  8. I don't know...I do know that the whole Jemmy thing has me going "OH COME ON!" I mean, how hard is it to not "cliffhanger" a book that obviously, since you KNOW you take 3 years or so to write the next one. Unless she's already half-way - or more - done with the next one, you would think her editor would have gotten her to cut the storylines off elsewhere.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Take their cars and donate them to charity for fundraising and/or use. (MADD, for instance?) And massive fines, of course. As for running over people while drunk, the charge is... manslaughter, yes? Personally, I'd prefer a murder charge to manslaughter, but can only state a preference, given my immense lack of knowledge about our criminal justice system. (that is, I have no idea how ridiculous, or not, changing "manslaughter" to "murder" would be)

    I keep wanting to call myself Liberal, but agree with Conservatives too often. But when I do, I do it quietly. I don't take bait for political rants, which usually makes people think that my stubborn silence means that I don't agree. Not necessarily; I just don't wanna talkaboudit!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Herdthinner, my understanding is that (at least in WA, where I live) the charge of homicide (murder) must include proof beyond a reasonable doubt that there was premeditation to commit the specific crime, whereas manslaughter just has to show that you are willfully responsible for the crime (i.e. you knew what you were doing could lead to the death of another human being, and it wasn't in self-defense), while there's another category for negligent homicide where you didn't take the responsible actions to prevent killing another person.

    ReplyDelete