Get tougher on drunken drivers
Consider these news reports from the past three weeks:
June 19: An Aurora man could face six to 30 years in prison after his seventh DUI arrest.
July 2: An Arlington Heights man already convicted nine times of driving under the influence was arrested again after police spotted his car weaving between lanes.
July 3: A McHenry man was sentenced to seven years in prison for his sixth DUI.
July 8: Six years ago, a drunken Polly M. Myers ran her car into a ditch and killed her 11-month-old daughter. Despite that, she chose to drive drunk again and was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison. It was her third DUI arrest since 1995.
It should be clear we've failed to protect ourselves from repeat drunken drivers.
Eight years ago, the Daily Herald conducted an exhaustive investigation into chronic drunken driving when clusters of just these types of stories kept surfacing. Indeed, the Arlington Heights man recently arrested and accused of driving drunk for a 10th time was the focus of one of those reports. Various public officials vowed then to improve record-keeping so judges would know the full extent of drivers' records. Legislation was proposed; promises were made. But the system remains as flawed as the humans who operate it.
We all must look for better solutions again.
Charlene Chapman, executive director of the Schaumburg-based Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists, recently told one of our reporters, "The breakdown is at the bench. Judges have to give out tougher sentences."
It's hard to suggest she's simplified things when DuPage Circuit Judge Perry Thompson sentences Myers to 3.5 years in prison for her third DUI, meaning she'll probably serve half that time when she faced a maximum six years.
Thompson said all the right things, but his sentence seems ridiculously light. "I can't imagine an event that would trigger more self-punishment than to cause the death of your child and yet that did not deter you," he told Westmont resident Myers. "There are times when the goal of rehabilitation has to take a back seat to the goal of protecting the public. You, quite frankly, are not safe to the rest of us."
Let us be clear. We know alcoholism is an illness its victims must battle all their lives.
But when judges repeatedly return drunken drivers to the streets, it's as if they've let loose a roving terrorist time bomb.
The sentences must be longer. Perhaps it's time to start talking about putting these drivers through something like the mental health and drug courts some of our counties are trying. Those systems are geared toward intensive interaction, tracking and rehab for offenders. Perhaps it's time to consider a special prison for offenders with alcohol addiction like Illinois has for some drug offenders.
We know there are more than 5,000 drivers on Illinois roads with two or more DUI convictions. It's well past time to get serious about solving this threat to our safety.