Washblog || Drunk Driving held in Check...Point

Drunk Driving held in Check...Point

By leftnut
Thu Jan 10, 2008 at 10:30:37 PM PST
Section: Diary Topic: Legislation

Legislation is in the works calling for sobriety checkpoints to be held.

As reported by the Seattle Times among other news sources, Washington State Gov. Christine Gregoire is calling for the enforcement of sobriety checkpoints by state law enforcement in hopes of curbing drunk driving.

The Times states that the provisions of the proposed legislation would include:

An agency's chief law-enforcement officer would be required to obtain a warrant from a Superior Court judge to conduct sobriety checkpoints scheduled for specific locations, dates and times.
The public would be notified in advance of the checkpoints.
Either all vehicles or a designated sequence -- such as every fourth vehicle -- would be stopped.
Checkpoints would be set up only in areas with a statistically proven high incidence of accidents involving drugs or alcohol.

While it is almost a certainty that the program would have an effect on the issue of drunk driving in our state, it is still up to much debate as to whether the legislation will pass. It Faces heavy opposition from both the ACLU and history, namely in the form of a 1988 Washington state court decision deeming police roadblocks conducted during the mid 80's in violation of illegal search and seizure provisions in the state constitution.

It would be in the state's interest to give these checkpoints strong consideration as results can be dramatic. The Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Texas Chapter's Web site reports that in Tennessee where checkpoints are legal, impaired driving accidents are down 20% saving some 100 lives each year.

This might be one of those cases where the numbers don't lie.

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Drunk Driving held in Check...Point | 1 comment (1 topical)

careful reading of the US Constitution...

...regarding searches and privacy and warrants may be warranted. Don't I recall something about warrants identifying the location/person to be searched and the item to be searched for? But, "state's rights" notwithstanding, how could a state like Tennessee override that? So somebody must know better.

But we put up with all kinds of compromises in the name of combatting terrorists... as long as of course they aren't corporate terrorists, but that's done in the boardrooms and only kills and destroys lives directly, not by crushing meat and bones with large chunks of metal... notwithstanding uranium munitions, of course.. wouldn't want to cast aspersions on our mighty and rightful military right to blow stuff up.

What gets me is the notion that dressing it up with a bench warrant somehow makes it more... warranted.. you know, increases the truthiness.

I confess, I ride a motorcycle mostly. I'm constantly surrounding by flying chunks of metal large enough to create their own momentum distortion zone: "I'm not moving, the world around me is!". Too bad driver's license qualifications aren't based on weight, IMO. You start with something weighing under 500lbs and work up from there. Just as a general principle.

But when did rationality enter into it?

by m3047 on Fri Jan 11, 2008 at 06:06:41 PM PST

* 1 none 0 *

Drunk Driving held in Check...Point | 1 comment (1 topical)

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