So much for stricter DUI laws in Arizona..

Seems Arizona's now Supermajority Republican legislator has two bills poised to roll back some of the DUI laws in Arizona.

Arizona bills would ease DUI penalty for first-time offenders

I guess getting tough on crime is ok, as long as its not getting to tough on WASP's in your voting districts. Scottsdale, AZ and Glendale, AZ is far from SB1070 hot spots.

 

"The Arizona chapter of MADD is fighting Gray's bill, as are the interlock companies, and opposes other bills that weaken DUI laws"


I like how the interlock companies are against this....

 

DUI laws are fuckin ridiculous.

 

I would imagine interlock companies make more money the longer the device is on the car.

 

I agree with that. I have made the offense myself and got pulled over for a bullshit reason and got charged and convicted. I did my shit, went through classes, all the bs they make you do. I dont really drink anymore and no i have a good reason not to.

 

The thing is, you pretty much can't be in compliance. 2 beers at dinner, body weight, and how much you had to eat, all play a big factor. The law is written in the cops favor.

Michigan is .08. That's pretty easy to fly by, even though you feel fine.

For me, I have a CDL. A dui is a damn big deal. Like a 50K hit kind of deal. Because of this bullshit, I spend a good 1k in cab rides a year. Not to mention, I could drive better than 90% of the cab drivers that take me home. Doesn't mean I'm safer, just means I won't get a DUI.

 

And it usually errors on the high side: don't get caught. :tut:

I looked up the error when I over heard a co-worker saying that her husband got busted for a .082.

What a crock of shit.

...and in my more stupider days my buddies and I did drive DRUNK. Not worth the risk anymore.

 

Did all the bullshit that the law put you through have anything to do with your slowing down on drinking?

 

It's amazing how years can solidify one's thinking on drinking while driving. I got away with some really stupid things when I was younger because of where I lived. It was basically a rural area with a hell of a lot less traffic than what we deal with today. As I got older I realized how absolutely stupid driving drunk was so I have no problems with any current DUI laws.

There's nothing more irritating than being surrounded with drunks while you're sober or having your car destroyed by some dumbass that thinks he can drive while fucked up.

 

It had a major impact on how I have fun. I started drinking at an earlier age, ya know, sneaking into bars when your 18 and stuff because you finally look old enough etc. I was slowing down on my party animal phase when i got the OWI and I can say i maybe have had 5 beers in the last 5 years. My insurance went through the roof for 5 years, i lost my license for 6 months, took courses to get my license back, paid fines. It really sucked and I'm sick of giving the gooberment anymore of my money than i have to so I pretty much dont drink anymore. Now a days its too much bullshit to get caught. OH and on top of it im a auto tech so I test drive cars all day long. Good thing my fathers own the shop i work for. However, his insurance had a big deal about me being there. What a hassle in more ways you can think of.

 

Inteli-Drive will fix all of this. Get in your car, plug in the address where you want to go and have the car drive you home. Makes road head much safer also.

 

Sounds like all you drug addicts that are complaining about the laws need to NOT drink and drive. At least you can legally do all of your drug you want to, all you have to do is have a non druggy friend drive you or call a cab and be as sloppy as a drunk as you want to be. How many people die/get killed every year because some ahole knew they weren't to drunk to drive.

 

I saw a good article or news/opinion piece on this a while ago. The point was that the laws as they are written now are counter productive. They aim to punish the cause of the infraction and not the infraction itself.

The DUI as it is set up now is a revenue/PR/ease of technology issue. When the BAC limit was reduced from .1 to .08 the rates of injury and crashes went up according to the piece. Furthermore, of these people almost NONE are close to .08. Most are twice or more.

Then you have the LEOs setting up checkpoints that generally don't catch any drunk drivers. They do catch some people for other minor infractions and occasionally a person with a warrant. Given the success of these in reducing DUIs, it is clear they are just a revenue/PR scheme. While this revenue gathering is going on the LEOs are kept from policing other crimes or catching drivers who are actually engaging in reckless driving.

The real solution is to police the ACTION. The actual offense of reckless driving. Make the penalty the same regardless of whether it was caused by OWI, being on a cell phone, eating, putting on make up, reading, etc. The type of enforcement will save more lives than any strictly DUI/OWI program will.

 

eh, MADD, has turned into just another way for people to make money. The whole DUI thing has turned into a money machine...

http://activistcash.com/biography.cfm/b/3870-chuck-hurley

 

So the DUI laws are not like everything else? You know if you are not doing anything wrong you have nothing to worry about. That's what people always tell me about smoking pot, if I am worried/complaining about the trouble I could get in then just don't do it. The way I see it if people are going to complain about the DUI laws, the simple thing to do is to not drink and drive. So alcohol is some special drug and people should be able to drink and drive anytime they want as long as they say they are not drunk.

I don't agree with the roadblock BS either, but if you are drinking and driving you deserve whatever you get for doing it. Of course the real easy way to stop it is to just put alcohol in with the war on drugs, since that seems to stop all of the drug problems we currently have.

 

It's like these cabs I take home all the time. I take cabs home because I have a CDL, hazmat, etc. If I get a DUI it is a big problem. I'd venture to say I spend 1K a year on cabs.

Anyhow, half the time I'm with these cab drivers, they're driving so damn bad, I'm in the backseat with a 12 pack in me, wondering if I'd be any more dangerous than them. The cab means I'll get home without 10grand in fines. It doesn't mean I'll get home safer.

DUI laws are really punishing guys in their 20's. Look at it any way you want to, you take a kid making 12 bucks an hour, figure it'll cost him 30bucks for a cab ride home, he's gonna play the odds. 30 bucks is a lot to him, he's already on his last dime. Even if he has 2 beers, depending on what he has ate, not ate, metabolism, etc. he could potentially blow over.

Now the guys a fucking criminal, can't buy insurance, can't get a loan, and for the next 3 years, he's fucked. Then next time a cop runs his plate, he gets pulled over again late at night for no reason at all other than they saw he already had a DUI.

Even if he's driving just fine and some old bitch pulls out in front of him and he hits her, he gets the DUI. That happened to the kid that works for me. He had 3 beers at dinner with his girlfriend. Old bitch pulled out in front of him. Now he's fucked for 3 years.

 

California's DUI laws vary greatly by county. Ventura county has the most Draconian. An acquaintance of mine just got convicted without ever starting his car.

He was attending a car show and had a few too many beers. Started getting cold around nightfall so he and a buddy decided to get their jackets from his truck. Went to the parking lot and was leaning in his truck to get his jacket when a squad car rolled through. Cop assumed someone might be breaking in and confronted the guys. Guy showed the cop his keys to prove the truck was his and cop decide to do field sobriety tests. Ended up getting arrested for DUI since he was next to his car with the keys in his possession (thereby legally having control of the car). Since he couldn't prove he hadn't been driving the truck, never mind the engine was cold, he was booked for DUI. Both guys testified they weren't driving but, the court opted to go with the cops call. Guy is now doing 9 months DUI program ($1,800 cost), $4,200 fine, 12 months ignition interlock device, 48 hours jail time and license suspended for 10 months.

Most people don't realize how many times they drive legally drunk after wine with dinner.

 

When you catch someone speeding, dwi, expired plates, etc it's a money maker for the gov't because there's little overhead. The person usually pleads guilty, pays the fine, and moves on. When the police spend time actually policing, and catch a real criminal, the gov't usually has to invest in building a case, running a trial, paying a prosecutor and possibly a public defender, AND prison time for the crook. No wonder they spend so much time on the highway.

 

If the guy is driving after drinking and gets in an accident his fault or not, it goes back to he was drinking so he shouldn't have driven anywhere. You drug addicts deserve no sympathy for getting caught doing illegal things after taking your drug of choice.

Sounds about the same to me as someone getting caught with a joint with or without driving and is now a criminal. Based on that the DUI laws sound fair to me, of course I don't drink so I have nothing to worry about when it comes to DUI. Heck according to most a person who smokes even a little pot is more dangerous on the street than someone drinking anyway. Of course I know pot is illegal so no one should be doing it in the first place.