SF New Mexican: Our infamous DWI situation continues.
Mora County man snags 22nd DWI. And he’s not the record-holder! How about ending DWI offenses at the fourth conviction? Four times, you lose your license for life.
NM is the only state I’ve lived in where I’ve experienced family-harvesting traffic tragedies, not to mention having to dodge drunks nearly nightly. I’ll make a personal plea here: If you must drink and contemplate driving afterwards, what’s $29 bucks out of your pocket? Get a personal breathalyzer, and save lives.
Comments:
The die-hard alcoholic doesn’t drink to be social, IMHO. It’s a gluttony, brought about by their psychological make-up.
Granted, society here in NM winks at alcoholism, instead of bodily thrusting it away and ostracizing it.
The alcohol seller needs to be held responsible for continuing to serve an obviously drunk person. And by obviously drunk I don’t mean just behavior but quantity of alcohol served versus approximate body size.
Close some bar for one night each time someone they served is arrested for drink driving (that is, one night first arrest, two nights second arrest, three night third arrest) and you will quickly see a difference.
Won’t help in all situations but we need to start somewhere.
We start here.
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“Breathalyzers” don’t work. They’re junk science dressed up as law. People with serious drinking problems don’t use them, anyway. Nor do they use free services like taxis, etc.
If you read a bit about the man’s history, it appears alcohol is involved in most of his interactions with law enforcement: domestic abuse, forged checks, etc. Driving intoxicated is probably normal for him.
What’s most curious to me is how you’ve framed the issue of intoxication and driving as one of personal choice/responsibility, versus framed as a social phenomenon that accords with alcohol use.
Because, isn’t that really what’s at the root, here - the normalization of alcohol abuse? If you’re dodging drunks “nearly nightly”, maybe it’s time to consider a social solution: close the bars?