Terry Mitchell

Virginia’s New Teen Drunk Driving Penalty Not Harsh Enough



Posted: Thursday, July 21, 2011

by Terry Mitchell
http://commenterry.blogs.com

A so-called harsher teen drunk driving penalty went into effect in Virginia on July 1. But it’s not nearly harsh enough, in my humble opinion. The new penalty includes the loss of one’s driver’s license for one year (up from six months) along with either a $500 minimum (previously the maximum) fine or 50 hours of community service (added as alternative to the fine).

For adults, Virginia has some of the harshest traffic laws in the country, which include possible jail time for not slowing down or changing lanes when passing a stopped emergency vehicle. In light of that, this supposedly harsh penalty for teens who drink and drive is nothing more than a slap on the wrist and makes no sense at all. To quote the lady in the Wendy’s commercial from a quarter century ago, “Where’s the beef?” Specifically, where’s the jail time?

A one-year loss of their driver’s license? They’ll drive anyway. A $500+ fine? Their parents could easily pay it. Fifty hours of community service? Get real, most kids don’t mind that. And for those, like my niece, who do, there’s often an easy way out. She was sentenced to a few hours of community service for using (and wrecking) her dad’s car without his permission and without a license. However, she whined about it so much that they let her off the hook after doing less than 50% of her scheduled service.

Teens who drink and drive should be treated at least as harshly as adults are. Think about it. When they drink and drive, they are breaking at least two laws at once. Adults are legally allowed to drink, but every state has a law in place that forbids youngsters from drinking at all until they are 21. So teens are breaking that law along with the one that prohibits DUI. Therefore, they should take a double hit when they are caught drinking and driving. The current law – at least in Virginia – does not provide that.
Terry Mitchell is a software engineer, freelance writer, amateur political analyst, and blogger from Virginia, USA. He posts a least one article a day to his blog - http://commenterry.blogs.com - on subjects such as current events, politics, technology, society and culture, religion, health and well-being, self improvement, personal finance, trivia, and sports. He is also the owner of a new privacy-enhanced search engine - http://www.SearchMost.com.

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