Last year, Minnesotans faced dangers when they were on the road that had nothing to do with ice or snow or deer flying out of ditches.
In 2011, Minnesota had 136 alcohol-related traffic deaths for 37 percent of all traffic fatalities. Drunken drivers are overrepresented by males and young adults, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety recently reported. And those individuals account for a "disproportionate share of fatalities," the state says. In 2011, males represented 75 percent of impaired driving arrests. But the Minnesota Department of Public Safety notes women are gaining in this area. Since 2002, female DWI offenses have increased 5 percent to now represent a quarter of all DWI offenses.
With a half-million Minnesotans with a driver's license record with a DWI, the state notes one in seven drivers (those with a driver's license, or with one that's been revoked or canceled) has a DWI on record.
Most impaired driving offenders are first-timers (59 percent in 2011) and 41 percent had prior DWIs on their record.
When people are arrested there is an overwhelming conviction rate. Historically, about 85 percent of DWI arrests result in a conviction each year.
For more details, go to the weekend edition for the state's report on impaired driving and local county numbers.
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Comments (6)
Add commentDWI extortion act
DWI laws are about extorting money out of the people, it has little if anything to do with drinking, that's just the "cover". Minnesota, under pressure from insurance companies, "large insurance lobby" bent over and grabbed it's ankles so fast due to the threat of "losing" federal hiway dollars. The fact of the matter is, the state would do much better if it cut the feds out of it and kept the federal gas tax dollars right here. But back to the main topic, DWI laws are about fleecing, a hidden tax, a subsurface fee, call it what you want it has little to do with drunken driving. The "fee" for getting the little piece of plastic (drivers license) back from the state is $700.00, That's after you have paid thousands in "court costs", paid to go sit through this MADD meeting and that seminar, and paid for your lawyer.
The entire thing is a money grab by far to many agencies and groups that found another way to feed off us like parasites. Now, if you want another fun discussion we can talk about the Brainerd police department and it's methods of pulling people over depending upon what time of night it is and lieing to them about the "stop". Yes, our boys and girls in blue are all about "numbers"....and they will bend any rule or article in the constitution to run those numbers (of DWI arrests) up so we will allow ourselves to get taxed even higher for more "public safety grants" (tax dollars) and tax dollars. We have a SS.... oops, I mean police department that is twice the size it was in the late 70's, but the population of the town is the same, and the "night time activities" in downtown Brainerd have dwindled down to nothing. More rules, more government, more rules by more government... on and on, it's a self fulfilling prophesy. Secession looks better every day!
DWI Drunk Driving
wildman, I look at the fees a bit different. When your child is killed by a drunk driver, and her daughter critically injured for life, the fees are very different. $4 million in medical bills, $15000 in funeral expenses, lawyer fees I need to pay because of the drunk driver, heartache and devistation for life! The drunk driver made the choice to face his punishment, my daughter and grandaughter didn't! The loss of her life, the life disabilities of her daughter, and the lifelong devastation to our family...... priceless! If you choose to drink and drive, pay the price!
Fees and emotions...
Specklebelly, children (and adults) have been hurt through ten thousand different ways and accidents over the millennia, I am not approving of it in any way. What I am saying is that the unholy alliance between gov't and "private industry" , in this case MADD, is not honest about their motives. Both operations exist for the sake of more growth, control and power... all of which involve money. That money is pulled out of us in numerous ways and most of the time it is nothing short of extortion. We have allowed all of this to take place in the name of "public safety",THAT is a smoke screen by those in line to make money off of us.... again. All of that being said keep in mind that birth defects and falls cost society billions also, dwarfing drunk driving injuries. Many birth defects and falls can be avoided through various efforts, but it they still exist. Your emotional attempt to get me to believe that it's a common occurrence for children to be injured to the point where they run up 4 million in medical bills and $15,000.00 funeral expense is falling on deaf ears because its not a valid argument and you have stretched those numbers to the point where it is B.S.. Emotion is not fact Speckle, keep the emotion out of it and stick to the facts about how some of these things happen. Most of which are a series of poor judgement, timing and poor parenting. The little boy that was killed in Merrifield a few years ago had no parental supervision but the driver was blamed, not the parents for ignoring the safety of the little boy. Often we don't want to take responsibility for what goes wrong in our lives because we don't want the shame. So don't stop in the middle of a busy hiway and make hand motions for little kids to cross when there are 4000 lb vehicles bearing down on you at 50 MPH, it's poor judgement.
Well stated wildman!
Its a huge money grab!
As I've said before
As I've said before, I'm not in favor of drunk driving, nor am I in favor of "the State" violating us in the name of "public safety", we all know in actually in the name of job security for the multiple layers of "criminal justice". If you have one beer to many, and get pulled over because you have a headlight out and NOT because of how you are driving, your job and your life have just been turned upside down. All of this to grow the government payrolls, the government employee unions membership and increase the bottom line for insurance companies, but YOU WILL NEVER see a decrease in your premiums. There is a large unholy alliance between the insurance lobby, every state legislature and the US House and Senate. Go see who "buys" some of these legislators, check projectvotesmart or one of the other watchdog groups, don't just take it from me:)
What are the cops doing about the other 63% of fatal accidents.
I am not in favor of drunk driving but do agree the current laws are all about getting money from people. If the government was actually concerned about deaths on the highway they would at least put SOME resources toward improving driving behavior and getting people off the roads that cannot drive.
There are almost No actual accidents. Most crashes are caused by driver negligence. Driving too fast, not paying attention, or poor vehicle condition. Why have they basically proved that talking on your cellphone is just as bad as drunk driving but we have decided it is too inconvenient to stop people from doing that.
It is time for some programs by the government to help bring down the 2/3 of fatalities NOT caused by drunk driving.