New Jersey’s drunk driving struggles

People in New Jersey may believe the state takes a hard stance on drunk driving. From license suspensions to high fines to criminal records and more, people charged with driving under the influence in New Jersey may experience many penalties.

However, the penalties for a DUI in New Jersey appear insufficient in their efforts to prevent people from driving after consuming alcohol. Instead, the state continues to record deaths from drunk driving accidents at an alarming rate.

Statistics show increase in drunk driving deaths in 2018

According to records from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, one in four vehicular fatalities in New Jersey in 2009 resulted from collisions in which alcohol was a contributing factor. By 2014, a staggering 29% of the state’s accident fatalities involved alcohol. In both 2015 and 2017, 19% of New Jersey’s accident deaths involved drunk drivers. Then, 2018 saw matters get worse again with 125 drunk driving fatalities, accounting for 22% of all vehicular deaths.

Repeat drunk driver kills man in rear-end crash

As reported by the New York Post, a 65-year-old man died several days after a drunk driver rammed into the rear of his vehicle in Toms River in the autumn of 2019. To make matters worse, the impaired driver had not one, not two but three prior drunk driving offenses on his record. In fact, the man operated his vehicle at the time of the crash without a valid driver’s license.

A judge sentenced the drunk driver to spend five years in prison for the death of the other man. He may lose the right to drive for up to 15 years. However, he already exhibited the willingness to drive without a valid license so this should make people wonder how the state may enforce the license suspension or revocation.