Paying child support to drunk drving victims
Paying child support to drunk drving victims
New law in Texas will make drunk drivers who murdered parent or guardian to pay child support until the child is 18 years old.
I don't disagree with drivers paying damages, but I see laws like this as whack-a-mole with symptoms of the problem of car dependency. Bars and restaurants serving alcohol with car dependent design is just a bad idea. No amount of laws is going to prevent drunk drivers from killing people as long as they remain the only way to get to or from places people consume alcohol.
Liquor licenses should not be granted to establishments without public transit during business hours.
The American idea of DRIVING TO THE BAR, many of which have parking lots, is completely an utterly unacceptable.
@knoland @Sensitivezombie @neanderthal That is an interesting idea, but also very urban-centric. For most of my life I lived in places that had no public transit. So even if I went to a bar that had transit, it wouldn't have gotten me home.
@knoland @Sensitivezombie @neanderthal
Ask any local police department, they will tell you that almost every neighborhood bar without transit or safe walking/biking access is basically a DUI generator. These establishments force significant externalized risks on their communities, and there's a good argument that they should pay a higher share of the cost of providing transportation services and infrastructure.@knoland @Sensitivezombie @neanderthal
That is a great idea. I love it when logic is applied to problems.@knoland
@Sensitivezombie @neanderthal not just parking lots - parking minimums!
It is supposedly a personal moral failing every time someone drives too old, too tired, or too impaired, but if trains, busses, & walking were the default ways to get around then this chronic societal problem would diminish dramatically. For the vast majority of US citizens busses, trains, walking, biking, etc are not viable options because US infrastructure & city planning overwhelmingly neglects everything but the automobile.
Incompetent driving is rooted in systemic failures, not personal moral ones.
Exactly. In the US, we put bars in strip malls and remove most public transport, then arrest people for driving drunk
@AfricanExpansionist
Agreed. Separation-of-use zoning spawns drunk driving.
@Vinegar
I doubt we'll ever see anything but the treating of symptoms in our lifetime. Especially sunce
CorporationsCitizens United still exists.
That is a law I can absolutely get behind. I'd go further and say that if they cause serious harm, they have to pay until the guardian can fully resume their duties to the child.
I'm quiet shocked it isn't the case in the US or Texas already. I'm from Germany and if you harm anyone while being drunk or just stupid you have to pay for every problem you caused. E.g. falling asleep while driving, causing an accident and hurting a pregnant woman, damaging the infant maybe a brain damage or stuff, it would be calculated by statistics how much money the child won't earn in life cause of you and you had to pay for every medical treatment for ever. Every cent not earned or spent because of your actions is yours to pay.
How about no
How about Elaborate on why you are against it? If you have a really good reason, you may even win some people over to your side.
Why not?
This is, sort of, already implemented where I live, in that the intoxicated driver is liable for loss of income, temporary or permanent, to any victims.
On the downside, judges tend to err under actual loss, and we don't really have an effective "loss of enjoyment" concept. Such to say someone, who is injured but can continue to work at the same, wouldn't be compensated for things like an injury precluding them from non-work damages; for example a skier victim who can no longer ski due to injuries
Given the finances of drunk drivers with records, this is akin to a death penalty or an induction into slavery. I can’t say they don’t deserve it.