Our View: At $10K-plus, getting caught is the bargain
A new nationwide crackdown on drunk driving is right on time. Although the U.S. Department of Transportation's pre-holiday announcement follows a declining number of deaths from drunk driving in 2010, new data indicates that fatalities from such crashes still account for one in three deaths across the country.
Even one death is a death that shouldn't have happened when the cause is alcohol-impaired driving — and there's greater cause for concern when there's cause for celebrations such as Saturday's New Year's Eve.
Gone are the days when a nice officer would take your car keys, put you in a cab and send you home — and rightly so. “Drive sober, or get pulled over” is the campaign targeting drunk driving, and with all 50 states and the District of Columbia now outlawing driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 or greater, it's obvious that this is no mere catch phrase.
The stakes are high: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data indicates that 10,228 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2010, the most recent year for which data is available. For the record, that's about one person killed every 51 minutes.
Yet if this isn't enough to deter driving drunk, consider other data from msn.money: The tab for a ride home following an evening of drinking and driving if you are arrested for DUI — even if no one is hurt and you have no accident — is about $10,000.
The sobering reality: Drinking and driving add up to a price tag no one can afford to pay.
Even one death is a death that shouldn't have happened when the cause is alcohol-impaired driving — and there's greater cause for concern when there's cause for celebrations such as Saturday's New Year's Eve.
Gone are the days when a nice officer would take your car keys, put you in a cab and send you home — and rightly so. “Drive sober, or get pulled over” is the campaign targeting drunk driving, and with all 50 states and the District of Columbia now outlawing driving with a blood alcohol content of .08 or greater, it's obvious that this is no mere catch phrase.
The stakes are high: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data indicates that 10,228 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2010, the most recent year for which data is available. For the record, that's about one person killed every 51 minutes.
Yet if this isn't enough to deter driving drunk, consider other data from msn.money: The tab for a ride home following an evening of drinking and driving if you are arrested for DUI — even if no one is hurt and you have no accident — is about $10,000.
The sobering reality: Drinking and driving add up to a price tag no one can afford to pay.