Tiger Woods’ excuse for DUI charge shows flaw in our driving-sins hierarchy
Woods mentioned he was taking a look at his cellphone and altering the radio station earlier than a crash final week in Florida, in response to legislation enforcement.
Skid marks will be seen close to the overturned automobile SUV in a rollover crash that concerned Tiger Woods on March 27. Woods mentioned he was distracted, a police report states. (Martin County Sheriff’s Office by way of AP)
Tiger Woods’ rollover crash last week and subsequent DUI charge near his Jupiter Island, Florida, home It was shameful and embarrassing sufficient.
But the excuse {the golfing} nice reportedly gave to the sheriff’s deputy who suspected him of driving beneath the affect makes his newest debacle even worse.
The arrest report, released a few days later, states Woods advised the deputy he was taking a look at his cellphone and adjusting his radio when his automobile hit the again of a truck in entrance of him, inflicting his SUV to flip. Fortunately, Woods got here away bodily unharmed, though his repute is taking one other bruising.
For all of the flak he’ll and may take, Woods’ clarification for clipping a truck and trailer that have been slowing to show right into a driveway exposes what so many drivers take for granted. Woods was much more snug with telling officers he was distracted versus probably impaired. And whereas the authorized penalties for the 2 are wildly completely different, the outcomes behind the wheel are sometimes simply as harmful.
April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Most each driver understands consideration lapses can have catastrophic results, however so many don’t act prefer it. Drivers get outraged at others weaving in lanes or not going when lights flip inexperienced, but they themselves fail to place down their telephones.
I’ve interviewed quite a few security and driving consultants over time, and so they have unanimously mentioned the results of distracted driving are akin to impaired driving.
Distracted driving is vastly underreported because the trigger for crashes as a result of proving somebody is holding a cellphone, adjusting music or wanting in the backseat, for instance, is troublesome. The 2018 Hands-Free Georgia Act, which successfully banned drivers from holding telephones, made pulling drivers over simpler. But the legislation doesn’t make discovering the trigger for wrecks much less blurry.
Blood and urine assessments, Breathalyzers and subject sobriety workouts, in the meantime, will help present if a driver is beneath the affect after a crash or visitors violation.
In Woods’ case, the report acknowledged he appeared impaired and torpid. He agreed to subject sobriety assessments and a breath check (the latter of which he handed with no indicators of alcohol), however refused a urine check. Law enforcement acknowledged they’d sufficient different proof to imagine he was beneath the affect of one thing, and so they acknowledged they discovered two hydrocodone capsules in certainly one of his pockets.
Woods’ reported admission that his eyes have been off the highway, whether or not true or not, is indicative of the warped hierarchy of driving with out our society has established. In Georgia, a motorist’s first distracted driving offense nets a $50 high-quality and one penalty level on their driving document. The subsequent two offenses every add further factors and $50.
Speeding penalties are a lot harsher.
Georgia DUIs are far more costly. A primary DUI prices an offender at the least $300 and attainable jail time. A second DUI means at the least 48 hours in jail, at the least $600 in fines and a compulsory three-year driver’s license suspension. A 3rd offense brings at the least 15 days in the slammer, a minimal $1,000 high-quality and 5 years with out driving privileges.
There is a a lot greater stigma connected to a DUI offense than a distracted driving ticket. Imagine if hands-free offenses introduced even half the penalties impaired driving infractions did. Would that change our frivolous driving habits?
Despite the disgrace and the severity of a DUI charge, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says about 34 people die every day in impaired driving crashes.
Laws typically take far too lengthy to alter. But we have to begin taking distracted (and fatigued) driving as critically as we do impaired driving. The penalties on the streets are almost similar.
Doug Turnbull covers the visitors/transportation beat for WXIA-TV (11Alive). His reviews seem 6-9 am on the 11Alive Morning News and on 11Alive.com. Email Doug at dturnbull@11alive.com. Subscribe to the weekly “Gridlock Guy” publication for the column here.
Doug Turnbull has coated Atlanta visitors for over 20 years.
