Bill Richardson instituted changes to New Mexico's OUI law. There was an article in the New York Times about this change yesterday.
Like Maine, New Mexico had a serious problem with OUI offenses. Lots of people were being killed. Despite tough penalties, people still drove with suspended licenses -- and drove drunk. (We had a situation here where a woman in Rockland drove drunk to the police station to complain about her previous arrest for drunk driving.) Governor Richardson came up with a great solution... Those who are convicted of OUI still have to pay their fines, still have community service hours, still have whatever jail time might apply to the charges, still have to attend DWI/ OUI school. But instead of not being allowed to drive at all, "an ignition interlock driver’s license must be obtained and an ignition interlock device must be installed and operating on all motor vehicles driven by the offender" for however long the license would have been revoked.
I cannot stress how cool this is. There are so many people who lose their license here in Maine because of driving under the influence. But instead of their lives getting better, many lose their jobs, can't get to medical appointments, go to the grocery store, even get to drug and alcohol treatment etc., unless they have someone to cart them around or if they break the law again. Richardson's solution punishes the offense, but allows for the offender to recover while still protecting the public from further offenses.
The result in New Mexico has been that they have seen a nearly 12% drop in alcohol related fatalities.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment