Monday, March 24, 2003
 

When Elvisette ain't happy . . .

Most of you have already gotten the following rant from me via e-mail. However, Philosophy Slam is now a public blog, and, on the off-chance that random strangers take note of it, I want to share this diatribe with the world. Because ELVISETTE IS MAD.

As you all know by now, a drunk driver, who was driving the wrong way on the interstate, hit my mother, also traveling on the interstate, Friday morning. As of today, she's still in the hospital.

So I started googling to find out if my home state's DUI laws were as bad as I remembered (and would expect). The answer to that would be a resounding YES. Here are the stats:

1st Offense: 30 days and $300 fine; 6 month license suspension// 2nd Offense: 1 year and $2,000 to $5,000 fine; 1 year license suspension// 3rd Offense: 60 days to 3 years and $3,500 to $6,000 fine; 2 year license suspension// 4th offense or above: 1 to 5 years; permanent revocation (may petition for restoration after 7 years) [source]

Those jail terms, as I verified via another website, are all max times; the 30 days, for instance, usually becomes 48 hours. Does it seem wrong to anyone else that it takes the FOURTH offense to revoke a license? And that if this is that man's first offense, he'll probably do two days of jail time and pay $300??? I was thinking more in terms of an old-fashioned drawing and quartering.

There's apparently now a per se law in SC (SC having been one of two states NOT to have that law, surprise surprise), but it has yet to be used in court because of opposition to it. If it were actually enacted, a driver would be automatically guilty if s/he had a BAC higher than .10.

Pardon me whilst I alternately fume (at the stupidity of lawmakers, drunken 64-year-olds, and the human race in general) and fret.

Elvisette philosophized at 6:50 PM