Drunken-driving law needs changes to save lives
Published August 4, 2015
Editorial by Fayetteville Observer, August 4, 2015.
Rhonda Bryant is expected to be released from prison this week, 125 days early. Jeremy and Jenny Bruns are outraged. They should be: Bryant tore away Jeremy's legs and much of the life he loved, sending him and his wife into a new life of horrible pain and almost unthinkable challenge.
Bryant was driving under the influence on the morning of Nov. 10, 2012 when she slammed into Jeremy Bruns as he was loading fishing gear into his truck. He lost both of his legs above the knee as well as a thumb and finger.
An Army command sergeant major, Bruns had been deployed nine times in 22 years, mostly to war zones. But his most grievous injury came at home, at the hands of drunken driver.
Bryant is an acknowledged drug addict and alcohol abuser, but she had no previous convictions for drunken driving, so the maximum sentence for her felony conviction was 16 to 29 months. Because she accumulated "earned time credit," she is slated for release on Wednesday.
Jeremy and Jenny Bruns say that wasn't nearly punishment enough for what she did and they're campaigning for tougher DWI laws that give more prison time to drunken drivers who cause "catastrophic" injuries.
"Stronger laws are needed," Jeremy Bruns told an Observer reporter. "Americans are outraged by lone gunmen shooting people in schools and theaters, but drunk drivers kill and injure many more people on a daily basis."
A longer sentence might well have been appropriate for Rhonda Bryant and others like her. But that's only one step of many that need to be taken. Longer sentences alone won't solve the problem.
The courts and the General Assembly also need to do these things:
Expand the state crime lab so that local prosecutors get blood-alcohol test results within days - not months or years, which is the current standard.
Change court procedures so that skilled DWI lawyers can't shop for the most lenient judges and roll up a seemingly endless string of continuances while their clients are free to commit repeat offenses.
Create specialized courts for DWI offenders who are candidates for rehabilitation. Every drunken driver who gets sober and stays that way is sparing the lives and limbs of people like Jeremy Bruns.
Although the courts are tougher today on drunken driving, they still aren't able to make the punishment fit the crime. Worse, they aren't getting those offenders sober.
It's time to make that happen.
