[Noah930]

Christien and Rikao4: I think you're on to something. We don't treat negligent driving seriously here in the U.S. Drunk driving (particularly when it's not just the first offense) is negligent driving. You don't just make a little mistake when you're caught a third, fourth, or ninth time (there's a LOT of that here on the Cape). My proposal: if you're found guilty of negligent driving and there's a bad outcome (i.e. your drunk driving causes death/dismemberment/etc.) you lose your license forever. Because clearly you have shown you can't be trusted with anything close to good judgement when it comes to driving. Everyone (today) guilty of stuff like this says they're rehabilitated, get their license back a few months later, and then go on to commit the same offense over and over again. So just pull their ticket...for good. Their name goes on some national list whereby they can never again get a driver's license (in any state), rent a car, purchase/register/title a car, or get car insurance. In short, they're bumming rides or taking public transportation forever. Then, if they violate that (and are caught driving again), they get thrown in jail forever. I don't think too many people would be keen on execution, so that'll never fly. But once it gets to the point of recurrent episodes of negligent behavior in something as serious and deadly as driving a car, it stops becoming a matter of the drunkard's personal freedoms and personal convenience, and starts to become a matter of my own (and that of my friends and family and other generally law-abiding people) personal safety. I don't want to end up a hood ornament because someone's drunk and driving, or because they're chatting on the phone while rocketing through dense fog beyond their available visibility, or because they've decided to zip along the shoulder around stopped traffic and run over someone stopped in the breakdown lane. Again, my criteria for inclusion are grossly negligent behavior resulting in a bad outcome.