When is a car a lethal weapon? The easy answer would be, if the vehicle is used to kill somebody. Anyone who follows the news knows that.
However, when it comes to the law, the answer is never easy. You hop in your car and drive like a maniac. You kill someone. Whether or not you spend time in jail depends on a lot of factors, not the least of which is whether you intended to kill anyone, or whether you were drunk.
Despite Ontario having some of the toughest anti-drinking and driving legislation in the world, there is still an attitude seen in the courts, that being drunk somehow helps to excuse outrageous and illegal behaviour.
One would think the opposite would be the case, that getting behind the wheel after consuming a great deal of a substance that ruins the ability to exercise good judgment and fine motor skills, might indicate a blatant and deliberate disregard for one’s own life and the lives of others on the road.
Driving a car while drunk might be viewed as akin to taking things from a store while waving a revolver. The law treats armed robbery as a lot more serious than shoplifting, even if the thief had no intention of hurting anyone. The simple fact of carrying a weapon indicates otherwise. At least, that is how the law views it. Shoplifting is a crime. So is walking along the road while drunk (drunk in a public place). But adding the car takes it to a level where someone is likely to get injured or killed, just as the revolver does with the robbery.
So what is the story with drunk drivers who kill people sometimes getting off with a conditional sentence? A conditional sentence means house arrest. And house arrest pretty much means a curfew. The person is customarily allowed to leave the house for specific purposes that might include employment, medical appointments, school, church and counselling. Other customary requirements are that the person abstain from alcohol and keep out of trouble. If he sticks to the rules, it puts a crimp in his social life for a while. Sleeping in one’s own bed every night and being forced to watch the game on the big screen TV instead of live is definitely not the equivalent of serving jail time.
According to the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, drunk driving accounts for almost 25 per cent of fatalities on our roads. Police still stop people every hour of the day or night for drunk driving. A good number have no licence or insurance because of previous impaired driving convictions.
Not knowing the gun was loaded has never been accepted as a defence against a murder charge in this province, and not intending to hurt anyone cannot be a defence for a drunk driver who kills someone. The act of getting behind the wheel drunk is a serious crime that has caused at least 2,000 deaths in this province in the past decade (Ontario Ministry of Transportation statistics) and ruined the lives of countless thousands more.
We are entering the holiday season, when tradition leads many of us to share a glass of cheer with friends. Somewhere in this area, at some point in the next couple of months, a festive gathering will end with someone in the hospital or dead because of an impaired driver. And there is a reasonable chance the driver will get off with a jail sentence counted in months, not years, or even a conditional sentence.
Sentences must reflect the seriousness of the crime – not as a deterrent, but as a reality check. The reality is, drunk driving kills.