Driving to Endanger - Patriot Ledger Series

I found a series of articles regarding DWI, Melanie's Law and the laws in Massachusetts that was run in the Patriot Ledger over the last few years. I have put a link in the links section at left to a page of this series that covers how Mass. is lagging behind other states in their DWI laws and convictions. As you read through these quotes and graphics I hope you will follow the links to read through this whole series. Only by making others aware of the lax laws in Massachusetts can we make a change. How can a state that is as pro-active as Massachusetts have such archaic laws as they apply to drunk or drugged driving and repeat offenders who obviously have no respect for the law and will not be rehabilitated. We allow Gay marriage (the only state to do so) and fight for the rights of illegal immigrants (they are here illegally), but will not keep people who abuse the law repeatedly off the streets - something just isn't right here!

Here are a few quotes from this series:

* Massachusetts is the worst in the nation at finding out who’s been drinking, driving and causing deadly crashes. - http://www.southofboston.net/specialreports/drunkendriving/111806a.shtml

* Surviving drivers were tested in only five of 296 fatal crashes in Massachusetts last year. That's 1.7 percent, lowest in the country. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the national average was 31 percent.

The federal agency has pushed for years to test all drivers involved in deadly accidents. But nine states, including Massachusetts, still do not require or even recommend blood-alcohol testing of surviving drivers in fatal crashes.

Massachusetts tests nine out of 10 victims of fatal crashes as part of routine autopsies. -
http://www.southofboston.net/specialreports/drunkendriving/111806a.shtml

* Flunking the test: Mass. policy is nation's most lax
Massachusetts has no law requiring alcohol testing, but five other states do.Drivers involved in fatal accidents in New Hampshire have no right to refuse blood-alcohol tests if they’re suspected of causing the crash.

“The officer can actually, if need be, restrain the person physically while the blood is being withdrawn,” said Earl Sweeney, assistant commissioner of public safety in New Hampshire.

Maine has the same policy, but it applies to all fatal accidents regardless of who’s at fault.


“We test anybody in a serious accident where death occurs or is likely to occur,” said Kennebec County District Attorney Evert Fowle, head of the Maine Prosecutors Association. “It’s certainly called for by the law, and we do it.”

Maine tests 77 percent of drivers involved in fatal crashes, second only to South Carolina’s 94 percent. New Hampshire tested 32 percent, slightly above the national average.

But in Massachusetts, police can ask drivers to take a test only after they’ve been arrested for drunk driving. Here, the number tested is less than 2 percent. No other state tests so few drivers.
- http://www.southofboston.net/specialreports/drunkendriving/111806a.shtml

* Good lawyers, soft judges: Drunks still drive - No jail time for 85% of those convicted
...and more than two dozen other South Shore drivers who are currently facing their third, fourth, fifth, even eighth drunken driving offenses.

Why are they still on the road?

Prosecutors, police and anti-drunken driving advocates say the answer lies in a 10,000-word state law that treats drunken driving as a petty crime, gives judges wide latitude in sentencing and allows even chronic drunken drivers to claim hardship to get their licenses back. An overloaded court system, cutbacks in alcohol treatment and a Legislature reluctant to adopt tougher sentencing mandates also contribute to the problem, they say.

All of this has combined to give Massachusetts one of the nation's worst track records for dealing with drunken drivers, both first-time and habitual offenders.
Consider the statistics:

• Federal highway safety reports show that only four states have a greater percentage of alcohol-related fatalities than Massachusetts.
  
• While the percentage of fatalities caused by drunken driving has declined nationally during the past 20 years, Massachusetts' has declined at a lower rate than the national average, and only marginally since 1993.
  
• Massachusetts received a D-minus last year from Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The only lower grade was Montana's F.
  
• Faced with the loss of federal highway money, Massachusetts this year became the last state in the nation to adopt the so-called "per se" law, which defines a blood-alcohol level of .08 as irrefutable proof in court that a person is legally drunk.

- http://www.southofboston.net/specialreports/drunkendriving/1a.shtml

* Federal studies estimate that drunken driving costs the United States $114 billion a year in medical expenses, lost wages and decreased quality of life. Massachusetts' share of that bill is $1.8 billion.

The statistics obscure a compound tragedy experienced by many victims and families: often the auto insurance carried by the drunken driver, or by the victims, is totally inadequate to cover the costs.

Repeat offenders who have lost their license may have no insurance at all, forcing victims to rely only on their own. In any case, victims sometimes face years of litigation to recoup some of their costs.
- http://www.southofboston.net/specialreports/drunkendriving/2a.shtml

Graphics from "Driving to Endanger" - Patriot Ledger Series