Penalties for Driving Under the Influence

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Recommended: Stricter laws to prevent drunk driving

DUIs have blindly taken lives of citizens, and the punishment for this crime does not meet its destruction. In Mississippi, the first offense of a DUI carries only a ninety-day license suspension. Drunk drivers kill people every year. If DUI punishment became stricter, and careless drunk drivers paid the full consequence of their wrongdoing, the number of people killed by drunk drivers would decrease. Some argue that if the government strengthened DUI laws, it would have an economically negative effect on a city’s social drinking aspect; however, DUI laws would have a direct effect on repeated offenders and drinkers who disregard the law. Some people argue that if stricter DUI laws existed, it will only have a negative financial effect on cities instead of stopping drunk driving. In the article, “At Issue: Drunk Driving”, the author explains how drunk driving remains an issue and what the effect of stricter DUI laws would have on social drinking in cities. The article states how people feel about tougher laws on social drinking: “Others feel that the current legal limit is adequate and stricter laws would penalize social drinking instead of actual drunk drivers” (ProQuest Staff). The author claims that if the government passed stricter DUI laws, they would not stop drunk driving more than they would hurt the city financially. However, the safety of the people inside the city should remain the priority over money. In the same article, the writer states that the safety of people in cities is being threatened. The writer gives statistical evidence that drunk driving has a direct effect on traffic death: “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 40% of total traffic deaths in the United States are due to drun... ... middle of paper ... ...ks Cited Carreon, Victoria. “The Social Consequences of Drinking and Driving.” Info Host. Pay Dirt, Web. 14, Nov. 2013. http://infohost.nmt.edu/~paydirt/j/index.php/archives/71-drinking-and-driving. Lee, Evan. “DUI: Penalties Aren’t Severe Enough For Offenders.” The News Tribune. N.p, 24 Oct. 2013, Web. 11 Nov. 2013. http://blog.thenewstribune.com/letters/2013/10/24/penalties-not-sever-enough-for-drunk-driving/. “Preventing DUI Repeat Offenders.” IgnitionInterlockDevice.org. N.p, Web. 14 Nov. 2013. http://www.ignitioninterlockdevice.org/repeatduioffenders.html. Price, Michael. “Proposed Law Would Penalize Repeat DUI Offenders.” Daily Local News. Nestogram, N.p, 11 May 2013. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. http://www.dailylocal.com/article/DL/20130511/NEWS01/130519912. ProQuest Staff. "At Issue: Drunk Driving." ProQuest LLC. 2013: n.pag. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 11 Nov 2013.

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