• 27
  • October
    2011

For the most part, the efforts to curb drunk driving involve ever increasing penalties, enhanced penalties when someone is injured in an accident, jail time and the lowering of the threshold of what constitutes drunk driving. However, a new program being used to fight drunk driving isn't focused on penalties, but rather the possible consequences of drunk driving.

New York City boroughs Queens, Brooklyn and Staten Island have begun requiring first-time drunk drivers to attend a new educational program. The "Victim Impact Panel" program created by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is designed to educate drivers of the potential consequences of drinking and driving.

Drivers convicted of a first driving while intoxicated (DWI), not including injury-accident drunk driving charges, in these boroughs are required to attend a panel where the family members of people killed in drunk driving accidents speak about how the accidents have impacted their lives. MADD hopes that hearing these tragic stories will dissuade the drivers from drinking driving again.

According to Thomas McCoy, executive director of Long Island MADD, a third of drunk driving accidents in the United States that result in fatalities involve a drunk driver who is a repeat offender. The panels are intended to keep first-time drunk drivers from becoming these repeat offenders.

Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan said he hopes that through the victim impact panel first-offense drunk drivers will learn just how lucky they were to not have injured someone else.

Sources: http://statenisland.ny1.com/content/top_stories/148048/dwi-victims--families-to-now-address-drunk-drivers-in-new-program