The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) recently released a report (with 2012 stats) that showed “in 2012, 10,322 people lost their lives in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes.” These were people killed nation-wide.

That was an increase of 4.6% from 2011.

As for Montana, it leads the nation with 44% of the fatalities being alcohol-related. During 2012, there were 89 people killed in Montana in alcohol-related crashes, according to the report.

These 89 people left behind family and friends.

So congratulations Montana!

The NHTSA should make a traveling “Drunk Driving” trophy that has to be prominently displayed in the state capitol for the year after a state leads the nation in alcohol-related fatalities. Maybe state legislators, the governor, and the attorney general would work harder to deter drunk driving if they had to see that trophy.

The sad thing is there are people driving around right now who have multiple DUIs on their record. Hardly a month goes by that I don’t read about someone with more than five DUIs getting caught again.

It does not have to be that way. 

In my opinion, a third DUI in one’s lifetime should be enough that you are never allowed to be licensed to operate any motor vehicle again. States should say, you can live here, but you won’t drive here. If you are caught driving, five years in prison would be a nice sentence for first time offenders. They can increase that in multiples of five for each violation.

It’s really that simple; all it takes is legislators and a governor who want to be tough on drunk driving.

In my opinion judges across Montana are soft on drunk drivers. People have driven drunk and killed multiple people, and they get what amounts to a slap on the wrist. The laws are written in a way that it allows judges to hand out different sentences. Face it, in Montana we don’t have the brightest people serving as our judges.

Montana may lead the nation with 44% of the fatalities being alcohol-related, but those pesky drivers using cell phones will be stopped no matter what!

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