January 9, 2013

• Sobering Thoughts About Driving

  I don’t drink and drive.

  That’s not me boasting, or being obnoxious…simple fact.  You know how they say some people “can hold their liquor?” Well I’ve never been one of them, so even when it wasn’t an instant major driving offense, I didn’t drink and drive. (One glass of wine and I giggle…bad sign.) But since moving, I have been observing the laws in this state, and have come across two that while harsh seeming, I actually approve.

  The first deals with texting. It applies the same legal standard to driving while texting that it does to drunk driving…if someone dies as result, you are in DEEP shit. It wasn’t always that way. Massachusetts had a “year and a day law”. If the person you injured lived for more than a year and a day after the accident, you were in the clear. But that was changed, possibly because people wanted it to be. Last year they sent a young man (18) to jail for three years. The man he ran into while texting a friend died, changing his “driving while distracted” into vehicular homicide. It was a closely watched case. The usual defenses were offered. No intent—just bad judgement…but apparently Massachusetts takes a dim view of “bad judgement” when someone dies as a result.

  In another case, a man who had already served 2 years for drunk driving is now facing another date in court. His victim was a state trooper he’d run into—and put in a persistent vegetative state  more than five years ago. That trooper died in 2011…and now he is facing new charges…for causing her death. (For any junior attorneys out there, this is not “double jeopardy”. He was never charged with vehicular homicide…just drunk driving. You can’t argue that he’s already “paid”.) But this man has turned his life around. He’s now a successful realtor, He argues now that he paid his debt, cleaned up his life, is a contributing member of society…and that facing the potential of 15 more years in jail isn’t fair.

  Possibly…but the state trooper remains dead…her daughter will never have a mom, and has spent the last six years of her life without one. The young man at risk says he really wasn’t drunk. He denied drinking that night at all. But he still blew a .5 on the test. (It may not sound like much, but the law says .2 is drunk for an 18 year old…the age he was at the time. And if he hadn’t touched a drop…how did he get a .5? He admits he was over tired—exhausted in fact…but not drunk. He also says he doesn’t remember the accident. Which is where he loses me.  I’ve been in three accidents. I never caused one. For each, there is a sickening memory—the crunch when metal hit metal…a slow motion nightmare. From two, I was badly injured—even though my car took little visible damage…I got hurt enough to need spinal cord surgery.

  The article in the Globe had a picture of the police cruiser he hit. It was one of those big ones—and it looked like a bomb went off in the trunk. But he can’t remember it. That says to me he was not only out—but something helped him get there. The breathalyzer was not taken til two hours after the accident…and still delivered a .5…which also seems telling. So I will persist in my nancy pants, lame ass tradition of not driving and drinking, thanks…not only because the penalty is severe—but because I might end up hurting people I never met or knew. I might end up destroying lives, if I am stupid. I feel sorry for this guy…to a degree. But not enough to give him a free pass on an accident that killed someone. It will suck to be a cautionary tale…but to a generation that grows up believing all the bad stuff is erased “expunged” when you turn a certain age, its a reminder that their can be consequences…stuff mom and dad can’t make go away.

  So make mine a coffee please…I’m driving.

  • 8:22 am
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