DUI penalty plan would help the state take dangerous drivers off the roads

South Carolina has always treated drunken driving too lightly. Drivers can get arrested several times, avoiding jail and returning to the roads until they kill someone.

Seventh Circuit Solicitor Trey Gowdy has designed a plan that would enable the state to take this problem more seriously, establishing tougher penalties for repeat offenders and those who drive at greater states of intoxication.

And this is a serious problem. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration indicates that South Carolina has the second highest rate of alcohol-related traffic deaths in the country. And Spartanburg County had the second highest number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities in the state last year.

Clearly, this is a problem that needs to be dealt with. Gowdy's plan, which will be introduced into the General Assembly by House Speaker Pro Tem Doug Smith, R-Spartanburg, would be an effective method of cutting drunken driving.

The National Transportation Safety Board says that "hard-core" drunken drivers are the real problem. They represent fewer than 1 percent of motorists, but they are involved in 27 percent of all fatal traffic accidents.

The NTSB defines hard-core drunken drivers as repeat offenders or those who drive with double the legal limit of alcohol in their blood. The Gowdy-Smith plan is aimed directly at this group.

The plan would increase penalties for repeat driving under the influence, and it would provide increasingly strict penalties for those caught with higher blood-alcohol levels. Those caught repeatedly with blood-alcohol levels of .13 or more would face much tougher penalties.

Current state law allows those convicted of driving under the influence to serve their time in community service and on house arrest. Gowdy's plan would require actual jail time.

Alternative sentences like house arrest are appropriate for many nonviolent crimes, but the intent behind this plan is to make an arrest for driving under the influence a life-changing experience. That requires time in jail.

For too long, there has been little difference between an arrest for driving under the influence and a traffic ticket. The state has not treated drunken driving like the life-and-death problem that it is.

Gowdy's plan would change that. It would deal with the hard-core drunken drivers who endanger the public. State lawmakers should embrace the plan and pass it this year.

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