Really though, what is the deterrent then?? You're telling me that if an 'ordinary guy', like you or me, has 4 or 6 beers after work on friday and then makes the stupid call of driving himself home and gets caught, that the 6 months of lost income, personal embarassment, personal stress, and family stress, that a DUI will bring him won't make him think twice about doing that again??? Would the thought of showering with a He77's Angel named Bubba for a few months stop him?? Or maybe, just maybe it'd wake him up and make him realize the guilt and shame he'd feel if he killed someone else's little girl, little boy, wife, husband, mom, dad, etc.......
The question would be why a guy would have 4 or 6 beers after work on Friday, and make a stupid call to drive when he knows that there is a possiblity that he can get caught and have to go through the ordeal you just described?
FACT is, if you have more than two beers in an hour and drive, you're pushing the legal limit of being drunk.
The question is, how many Americans have more than one beer an hour, and then drive and DON"T get caught (for various reasons).
The problem is alcohol. Vehicles get thrown into the equation because people own them.
That said, only after DECADES did people realize that people driving drunk on the highways pose a serious problem.
My point is if you don't get to the root of the problem, legal guidelines imposing incarceration are only a band aid to the issue at hand.
Is the issue legal penalties, or driving while impaired?
I find it amusing that people never classify alcohol as a drug. It is.
Then again, we all know how prohibition worked out.
Do I have the annswer? No.
However, my opinion is that if a person blows a .08 and gets pulled over because he or she was observed by a police officer, perhaps "throwing the book" at them will accomplish nothing other than perhaps destroying their lives over a stupid mistake. They now have tools out that you blow your breath into before you can start the car. Perhaps something along that line? Then again, people being people, always try to figure out a way to beat the system if possible.