Every day, law enforcement officials risk their lives to catch alcohol-impaired drivers who have turned their cars into 3,000-pound bullets.
In the United States, 28 people are killed daily due to drunken driving. In 2010, adults drove drunk an estimated 112 million times. That's 300,000 incidents daily, and one in seven Minnesotans have been arrested for DUI.
It gets worse. One in three persons will be involved in an alcohol-related crash during their lifetime, and one third of all drivers arrested for or convicted of driving impaired are repeat offenders.
These people who continue to make this deadly choice keep getting second chances, unlike the innocent people that they kill.
Four innocent young lives were taken between November 2010 and August 2011 in Olmsted County due to the irresponsible criminal choice to drive drunk. Four young lives interrupted, four families shattered forever because of stupidity, ignorance and selfish, criminal choices.
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These repeat offenders were sentenced to prison time by a guilty plea or by trial. They were sentenced to 180 months, 69 months and a mere 41 months.
It is no secret that alcohol causes impairment, yet they choose to drink and drive. Why do they continue to get second chances?
Sandy Melville
Rochester
