More complicated than is being presented. As I said in a previous post I think we also need to consider that things sometimes aren’t as clear as we sometimes think. We do not know all the details for every drunk driving incident. For example, it is well known now that addiction is a disease. It has psychological, environmental, and genetic components to it. It is a disease just like diabetes is a disease and there are treatments for addiction (like other chronic diseases).

I’m not saying that in this particular case, there is clear-cut addiction but, I wonder about the scenario in which someone who is addicted gets a DUI and hurts someone. How would you react differently if instead we were talking about a scenario where a diabetic became hypoglycemic and because of low blood sugar became disoriented and got in an accident and hurt someone. I get that the scenarios aren’t exactly the same but they are similar and this may not be as simple as someone choosing to drink and drive.

Better education and earlier recognition of the disease of addiction and intervening and thereby hopefully preventing some of the consequences may have a much better impact in addressing the harms that may result from DUI’s than being vindictive/angry against drunk drivers.