« Twisted wingnuttery | Main | Debate Over Creationism Cranked Up to New Level »

June 22, 2006

Notorius Drunk Driver Gets Another DUI

About 18 years ago, I witnessed a head-on crash in which a drunk driver crossed the median and hit an oncoming car. We immediately pulled over and I rushed to the car that had been struck, only to find the driver, who turned out to be a much-loved grandmother in the area, dead. The drunk's car was upside down in the ditch, and I remember feeling furious with him as he blathered on about how his arm hurt. I have felt very strongly about drunk driving ever since.

The other day a friend started going off on MADD for their militant anti-drunk driving activism. I was truly shocked. Drunks behind the wheel of a car are extremely dangerous. And typically, it seems, they are not the ones who get hurt when they lose control of their vehicles.

That is why I was disgusted to read today that a notorious repeat drunk driver has re-offended, and nothing seems to have been able to prevent her from continuing to endanger the public. Nine years ago, the "human bomb" hit and killed Mary Johnsen as she and her husband were walking along the side of the road. The drunk killer had already been cited for a DUI four times.

When a Bellevue officer pulled over Susan Lynn West early Sunday morning in a Newport Hills shopping center, the officer says her "speech was slurred and her eyes were bloodshot and watery"; she had a "difficult time keeping her balance"; that she "refused field sobriety tests...." and breathalyzer tests, and in the passenger floorboard were two empty, and still cold, 24 ounce cans of beer.

They were Steel Reserve - one of the highest alcohol content beers you can buy.

West's killing of Johnsen spurred Oregon to lower the legal blood alcohol level for driving from .10 to .08 and required repeat offenders to use ignition interlock devices. That didn't stop West. She was pulled over while driving without a license (she isn't allowed to drive, even sober) or a device.

I don't know what we have to do to stop this senseless endangerment of the public, but clearly our enforcement of the law against these repeat offenders needs to be reexamined.

Posted by Becky at June 22, 2006 11:52 AM