Seriously? Would you ask that if the driver was 16? Old people tend to have worse eyesight, worse hearing, worse motor skills, worse cognitive reaction time, and are waaaaay more likely to have undiagnosed dimentia or Alzheimer’s than the general population. As a group, elderly drivers are the second-most dangerous people on the roads, only surpassed by the group that includes everyone who has just started driving.
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From the date of sentencing. Prison time is usually from the date of imprisonment though.
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Did you read the article?
Carol Rose thought it was a good idea to drink alcohol until she was twice the legal limit, and then get into her car. and she claimed she has problems with her sight.
These facts would apply, regardless of the age of the subject,
She drove like a sober me trying to race my nephews in Forza motor sport… except I swear a touch more.
Oh, Carol.
For me (I don’t drive for the record) it was pain related. I didn’t like the aspect of taking pills everyday, so I compensated with alcohol. Never affected my life or work (other than smelling of booze once in a while on really bad days…well…the day after…). I never drank at work either. I’ve had a few people die from taking too many pills, both acute (IE, Suicide) and chronic (IE, medical related). It took some time, but I’ve re-balanced and know that I can manage the pain easier and not drink as much.
Her sentence was suspended for two years. As long as she does everything required of her and doesn’t violate the terms of her probation, the sentence will likely be dismissed after those two years. It’s a common practice in countries that don’t have a hard-on for locking up a tenth of their population (and also happens occasionally in the US if you’re white and not poor).
It does seem remarkable that she made it to 71 without a DUI. Alcoholism usually starts young.
Jesus dude, she’s sick and needs treatment, not a death sentence.
Drunk and distracted driving piss me off too, but I sure a shit don’t wish them dead. That’s fucked up.
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Come on man she’s not sick. We should stop throwing this word around inappropriately. She is weak minded and made a choice. That choice nearly cost many lives.
Is a lack of will power a sickness?
Addiction is a sickness. Educate yourself. Addicts don’t make rational decisions. Draconian punishments don’t stop them or give them pause. The US tried this for decades and it’s been a colossal failure in every way imaginable. Addiction is mental illness. If you really care about reducing the problem of drunk driving and other destructive addict behavior, and not just about sating your own need for outrage, then you’ll advocate mandated treatment and rehabilitation.
I’ll even help get you started.
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Thanks I know about addiction personally. What you call addiction i call a decision. You can read all you want but at some point you have to make up your own mind about this stuff.
We all find alcohol addictive but most of us have the will to know when to stop. It comes down to a choice. She made hers.
Science is not a democracy. Addiction alters the brain. If you want to ignore the research, go ahead. You won’t be helping anyone. Since you’re obviously not open to changing your mind, I suggest we drop this conversation before it becomes impolite.
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Admittedly her behaviour suggests she’s an addict but how do we know she just wasn’t on a one off bender?
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That was my impression, some old lady got drunk and went driving, maybe she hasnt been that drunk in a long time who knows?
Exactly.
One day it’ll be ‘Some old lady got drunk and went driving and killed two families. Poor thing, she’s sick.’
What happened to responsibility? Are we not using that word anymore?
I said nothing about her being a “poor thing”. And recognizing mental illness isn’t letting the criminally mentally ill escape consequences. The differences is that I want them in custodial treatment and you, apparently, want them dead. There’s nothing humane about wishing for the death of people because they’re a danger to others and themselves. It’s that kind of fire-and-brimstone rhetoric that resulted in my country in general and my state in particular winding up with system of punitive criminal justice built on state sanctioned torture and murder.
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Calling addiction an illness mitigates all personal responsibility. Calling it strictly poor judgment mitigates science. My mother was a depressive alcoholic who self-medicated. She had clinical issues but also made unfortunate and life-destroying decisions about how to deal with them. It wasn’t black-and-white. Not much in life ever is.
In this case, I think it was a person with an addiction problem made the mistake of getting in a car while heavily impared, and the light sentencing reflected that.
This person (who could be an addict or not) made a bad choice. When you make a bad choice something in your brain tells you it’s a bad choice and you respond to that accordingly. Whether you’re an addict or not you know if it’s a bad choice. If you continue down that path knowing it’s a bad choice then you’re bad. Not sick.
Look i’m not a neanderthal. I don’t condone capital punishment of any kind but in a situation like this where an idiot nearly killed a family i have zero sympathy for that idiot.
Too many people hide their bad choices behind terms like sickness. The truth is they made a bad choice and they knew it.
We’re just going to have to agree to disagree on this.
Good! That’s what I was criticizing in my first reply to your first comment, the wish that she had died. I was hoping it was merely a hyperbolic statement made in the heat of the moment. In that it would be totally understandable, and I’ve done the same.
If she’s an alcoholic, I have some sympathy having witnessed in multiple cases how addiction fundamentally changes a persons brain and behavior. But again, we’re not going to agree on this and there’s no point in going around in circles.
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Agreed but i feel better for venting 
Good talk
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And for the record, I definitely don’t think you’re a neanderthal or a monster. I know you to be a long-standing and decent member of the community.
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