Opinions
Danny Cevallos is an attorney and a legal analyst for CNN. In an opinion piece posted on CNN.com, he uses the arrest of soccer star Abby Wambach for DUI to claim the crime of DUI "makes no sense."
I disagree. There are a lot of reasons why. Many can be found in a Centers for Disease Control fact sheet on the topic of impaired driving accidents.
9,967 - the number of people who died during 2014 as the result of an accident involving an alcohol-impaired driver.
28 - the number of people who die every day in the U.S. due to an alcohol-impaired driver (that's the CDC's number, a more accurate number is 27.3).
44 - The monetary cost of alcohol-impaired driving accidents, in billions of dollars annually.
59% - The percentage of alcohol-impaired driving accidents involving drivers between the ages of 21 and 34.
There are other reasons besides those in the CDC Factsheet.
16 - The number of times that Clarke Morse had been arrested for DUI prior to the night he ran his truck into the car of Cynthia Brennan. Police estimate that Morse's truck was traveling in excess of 50 MPH on a city street. The impact killed Brennan's sister Lela and left Cynthia Brennan paralyzed from the chest down. This case gained notoriety due to the fact that Ms Brennan had recently won a $35 million MegaBucks jackpot on a slot machine.
51 - The first number in the prison sentence Andrew Gallo received for a DUI incident where he killed Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others. Gallo was more than three times over the legal BAC limit when the borrowed van he was driving rammed into the car that Adenhart and friends were in. The estimate is that the van was going at least 65 MPH when the collision took place. Gallo fled the scene on foot. When sentence was pronounced in court, Gallo said, "I want you to know I never intended to hurt anyone. I am not a bad guy. I'm not a horrible person. ... I pray that one day you can forgive me and accept my apology." How could he have not intended to put lives at risk when he got behind the wheel with a drivers license that was already suspended for 2006 DUI conviction?
27 and 34. The number of those who died and who were injured in what many consider the worst DUI accident in U. S. history.
10 and 11. The number of years and months that Larry Mahoney spent in prison for the above crime. He was sentenced to 16 years but got out more than five years early for "good behavior." He was driving a pickup truck the wrong way on an interstate highway when he crashed into a former school bus now in use by a church.
* * *
I could list a ton of these tragedies and still the point apparently hasn't been driven home to Mr. Cevallos. The crime of DUI makes perfect sense because every time an impaired driver gets behind the wheel they put the lives of others at risk. Any traffic accident (and I use that term loosely) where alcohol was involved is something that is almost entirely preventable.
I disagree. There are a lot of reasons why. Many can be found in a Centers for Disease Control fact sheet on the topic of impaired driving accidents.
9,967 - the number of people who died during 2014 as the result of an accident involving an alcohol-impaired driver.
28 - the number of people who die every day in the U.S. due to an alcohol-impaired driver (that's the CDC's number, a more accurate number is 27.3).
44 - The monetary cost of alcohol-impaired driving accidents, in billions of dollars annually.
59% - The percentage of alcohol-impaired driving accidents involving drivers between the ages of 21 and 34.
There are other reasons besides those in the CDC Factsheet.
16 - The number of times that Clarke Morse had been arrested for DUI prior to the night he ran his truck into the car of Cynthia Brennan. Police estimate that Morse's truck was traveling in excess of 50 MPH on a city street. The impact killed Brennan's sister Lela and left Cynthia Brennan paralyzed from the chest down. This case gained notoriety due to the fact that Ms Brennan had recently won a $35 million MegaBucks jackpot on a slot machine.
51 - The first number in the prison sentence Andrew Gallo received for a DUI incident where he killed Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim pitcher Nick Adenhart and two others. Gallo was more than three times over the legal BAC limit when the borrowed van he was driving rammed into the car that Adenhart and friends were in. The estimate is that the van was going at least 65 MPH when the collision took place. Gallo fled the scene on foot. When sentence was pronounced in court, Gallo said, "I want you to know I never intended to hurt anyone. I am not a bad guy. I'm not a horrible person. ... I pray that one day you can forgive me and accept my apology." How could he have not intended to put lives at risk when he got behind the wheel with a drivers license that was already suspended for 2006 DUI conviction?
27 and 34. The number of those who died and who were injured in what many consider the worst DUI accident in U. S. history.
10 and 11. The number of years and months that Larry Mahoney spent in prison for the above crime. He was sentenced to 16 years but got out more than five years early for "good behavior." He was driving a pickup truck the wrong way on an interstate highway when he crashed into a former school bus now in use by a church.
* * *
I could list a ton of these tragedies and still the point apparently hasn't been driven home to Mr. Cevallos. The crime of DUI makes perfect sense because every time an impaired driver gets behind the wheel they put the lives of others at risk. Any traffic accident (and I use that term loosely) where alcohol was involved is something that is almost entirely preventable.
posted by me at 7:54 PM
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