Driving while under the influence of alcohol cannot only cause severe injury to the person who was driving, but in addition can cause injury to a bystander. Yet despite these harmful effects driving while under the influence (DUI) is treated less severely than illegal drug use. In 2012 there were over 10,000 DUI related deaths in the United States, and this counted for over one third of all fatal traffic accidents (Center For Disease Control). In fact, despite these statistics drivers that have been convicted of prior DUIs are seven times more likely to commit this crime again (Center For Disease Control). This reveals that they did not learn that their actions have severe consequences after the first time they were charged; therefore the punishments …show more content…
If their lives were made more inconvenient by imposing harsher punishments, then they would be less likely to commit the offence again due to the strong inconveniences it causes. One harsher punishment that could be enacted is the requirement of a drinking license and its revocation if convicted of a DUI. For example, counties in North Dakota gave drinking licenses to those of legal age, and if found guilty of driving under the influence then their license would be revoked (Kilmer 269). This effectively acted as a deterrence because those who were found intoxicated with a revoked drinking license immediately received jail time. In similar situations in South Dakota some counties would implement alcoholic tests twice a day for people convicted of DUIs (270). These tests where administered at the local police station and were conducted both in the morning and at night. This led to a reduction in alcohol use and in addition people were held accountable for showing up to take their Breathalyzer test. The police liked this method because if they failed or did not show up on time for their test there was immediate jail time, and in addition participants were required to pay two dollars a day to cover the tests. This lessoned the economic impact of the tests and allowed the officers to put more people into the program. Tactics like these with harsher punishments cause DUI drivers to suffer inconvenience, loss of time, and loss of money, deterring drivers from driving while intoxicated and acting more proficiently than just suspension of their driver’s