It bears repeating that the acronym for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, MADD, is synonymous with anger, blood boiling, voice raising, unadulterated, anger. Recently, the debate around proposed changes to Alberta’s drunk driving laws has revealed that anger is the only reasonable response to a legal system incapable of pleasing anyone, except the criminal.
Despite police and advocacy groups like MADD applauding Alberta’s recent attempts to toughen existing laws, the proposal is facing stiff criticism in the ranks of some legal experts and others. The major element at debate in the proposal is the change from the current temporary licence suspension for anyone caught with a blood alcohol level of .08 or higher to an extension of the suspension until the courts can deal with charges, thus keeping the alleged offender off the roads in the mean time.
Opponents argue that this is patently unfair in a society that values due process and the notion of innocence until guilt is proven. Defence lawyers argue that innocent people are going to be caught in what is too broad of net that allows a drastic penalty to be imposed before the accused is even convicted. The law would punish the innocent and do nothing to ensure a drunk without a license doesn’t get behind the wheel. That sounds good, but it just isn’t true.
In the first nine months that a similar law in B.C. was enforced, fatalities attributed to drunk driving fell dramatically by half. Last week, after less than two years, the B.C. courts struck down that law deeming it unjust. It didn’t stop every drunk from driving, nor did it prevent every unnecessary death, but it made an undeniable impact of clear significance.
If you drive and depend on a personal vehicle to get to work, earn a living, pick up kids, run errands, etc., your car can seem like your very life. Driving (especially when one lives in a rural area) is inarguably extremely difficult to get along without, but make no mistake it is a privilege.
Every death from drunk driving is entirely preventable. No one ever need die again from the reckless planning of a drunk, and it’s time we stopped calling these deaths, accidents. They are deliberately planned acts of irresponsibility.
Libertarians can quote platitudes and exclaim with all certainty that it is better that a thousand guilty men go free than one innocent man be convicted, and they may prove victorious when the new law is inevitably challenged in the courts, but they should save some of that anger. Twenty-one individuals died last year on Alberta roads where alcohol was deemed a factor. Twenty-one more may die this year, and every year after until we all get angry enough to realize there is no justice in that.