Punishment of intoxicated drivers

It is a fact that lots of deaths are caused by intoxicated drivers; therefore, most of the governments are trying to stop this problem by creating new laws, planning education programs, increasing the fines or elongating the prison years; nevertheless, any of these solutions seem to work. In Peru, 4 169 persons died by drunk drivers in 2009; in 2010 the number of deaths increased dramatically almost reaching 11 000, more than double. Thus, what is the best solution for this problem?  Some people think that intoxicated drivers should pay higher fines or be jailed for lots of years. Others consider this type of drivers as murderers, so they should be punished with the same crime. I do not agree with any of these groups, I think that most of countries have good punishments, the problem is that not all of us respects them; the corruption is everywhere and is the principal responsible of this problem.

There are some countries that punish the intoxicated drivers with death; for example, in Bulgaria if someone is caught driving under any substance’s influence for a second time, he or she is executed. Also, there is the case of El Salvador where your first infraction by driving drunk is your last since the punishment for these drivers is execution by firing squad. I disagree at all with this type of penalty; since, only God can decide when a person lives or dies; no one must die by human hands; besides killing will not bring back the person who died at the car accident.

Furthermore, I disagree with higher fines, for most of the countries which have this kind of punishment continue having lots of traffic accidents; for instance, South Africa’s fines are approximately 10 000 dollars for under influence drivers, and since they have this very expensive fine the accidents have not decreased.

I believe the intoxicated drivers should be jailed and they cannot get out on bail. In addition, if the continue driving under influence, his or her license must be revoked; also they should be required to attended to classes about the consequences of drunk driving. These penalties have been practicing in countries such as Poland where the offender is jailed, fined and forced to attend political lectures; others countries that use this punishment but without the political lectures are Mexico, Russia and some stares of The U.S.A where the accidents have decreased and  now roads are safer.

Latin America is another story. Countries like Peru and Argentina have good punishment system; for example, the new Peruvian transit code punishes the drunk driver that is involved in any accident causing injuries or death with a 3,500 soles fine, the revocation of the license for life and the retention of the car; even the drunk drivers whom not caused accidents have to pay a 1750 soles fine, suspend his or her license for 6 months or 2 years and give his or her car’s keys for at least 3 days. Moreover, both countries can send the offender until 4 years on prison depending on the damage caused. Therefore, why is this system not working? Because almost no one follows it; many drunk drivers get free of fines and jail by giving little money to police officer; also, government does not offers so many help to this situation; Peru does not have specialized traffic courts and the police of our county only posses 130 alcoholmeters.

To end, I just want to clarify that we do not need stronger laws or punishment; we only have to obey and make sure everyone obey the ones which have already existed. We must eliminate the corruption by creating and following programs like “zero tolerance”. This is not only the responsibility of police officers; it is of everyone. If we want safer road for us, for our parents and for our children, we must change our view about our police officers, start to respect them and teach everyone to respect them.

Gracia Bueno