Tuesday, September 13, 2005

New Mexico Mom's Rage!

I have something to day about D.W.I.!!! New Mexico has received the reputation as one of the worst places in the country for D.W.I. It makes me really mad. When I first moved here I thought, No it couldn't be as bad as they portrayed. Anyone watch COPS recently? Tons and tons of episodes on that show were filmed in Albuquerque. But thats another story!

Every night on the news they're talking about one D.W.I. related accident or another. Sometimes the accident relates in death. Its really sad how bad it is. Sure Governor Richardson is trying to crack down on the D.W.I. and they say that the number of related accidents/deaths is lower every year it is still a lot.

Okay imagine your driving home from the grocery store. Its the middle of the day. You're two kids are properly strapped into the car seats. You're driving the speed limit. You pull up to a left hand turn, you could run the yellow light and make the turn but instead because you want to be a safe driver for your kids you don't. You sit through the red light. You look up into your rear view mirror and you notice the car behind you. The driver is chugging back a beer! You wish you had a cell phone, you wish a cop was driving by at that exact moment. But there's nothing you can do, this man is going to get away with drinking while driving.
Okay now imagine that you're driving to a church function on the other side of town at 6pm. You pull up to a red light at the freeway. You're in the lane to cross the freeway, you look to your right and there is a truck with a couple of cowboys in it, in the right turn only lane to go onto the freeway. While they're sitting there waiting for the light to turn green both the driver and the passenger are throwing back a couple of beers!
Right now the State Fair is going on in Albuquerque. Last night on the news they reported the road blocks the police dept has set up around the fairgrounds. These road blocks are to do D.W.I. checks. They showed people in the fairgrounds with these huge beers. Within a few hours they fill the D.W.I. truck with enough arrests to take them all to jail. The fair has only been running for 5 days and if I remember correctly last night they said they've already made 57 arrests.
I have never drank beer, I have never seen the appeal. Okay if these people want to drink, thats there puragative, but why do they have to get back into their cars where there's a good chance that they will be in an accident?

The saddest part of the D.W.I. problem in New Mexico is the repeat offenders. Most people that have been arrested have been arrested before. A man was arrested this week for driving under the influence and causing an accident. When they booked him they discovered that he had been arrested for killing a woman in an accident 15 years ago. He had been sentenced to 2 years in prison and only served 6 months. But don't get me going on the sentencing for D.W.I. related deaths. That's another whole rage in itself! How after killing someone could he feel it was okay to go and do the same thing again?

I really hope that something can be done to stem the problem of D.W.I. At first I was nervous to drive after dark because of party-goers, etc. But after seeing people drinking while driving in full daylight I'm nervous to drive at all. My personal opinion is that they only way they are going to minimize the number of arrests is by making the sentences stronger. They've tried passing laws for seizure of the car after the first arrest but that was voted down. Its sad that the really good tough laws/bills get never get passed. Something needs to be done! And now!
Posted by ABQ Mom :: 9/13/2005 08:43:00 AM :: 3 Comments:

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