Why DUI tragedy is no reason for random checkpoints

Taken from Tuesday’s edition of The David Boze Show.

The second of two twin girls involved in a crash with another driver authorities say may have been impaired has died.

The Washington State Patrol says 17-year-old Janesah Goheen died Monday at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, where she was taken for treatment after a two-car collision on State Highway 20. Her sister, Janeah Goheen, died at the crash scene.

As I was reading about the story and thinking about the pain these parents must be going through, it’s almost too much pain for one family to bear. You just can’t imagine what that would be like or how they can go on, to see all that joy wiped out, and so inexcusably.

There was a story recently about some Democrats and Republicans that are calling for the state to institute random sobriety checkpoints, basically to stop cars to see if anyone in there has been drinking.

One of the questions asked by one of the proponents of the program, a development manager for Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Washington state, Amy Ezzo, was are we willing to give up a loved one, someone we care about?

That was the argument against those who would say that a checkpoint is not a good idea. I view that as a false dichotomy. I know that when you see something like this accident, when you see something like this tragedy, so senseless and so preventable, you get angry. Of course, if you could trade that stop on the road for their lives, you would do that. If you could pull over and save two teens’ lives, you’d do that.

But I view this as a false trade. If there is somebody out there and they’re weaving around and driving erratically, then you pull them over. But we live in a free society.

I realize other states do random DUI checkpoints and they point to their “success” in doing this because they find people who are committing a crime.

But still, they’re pulling people over with no reason for it. They haven’t seen something suspicious. They haven’t seen them do something illegal or something wrong. They’re just pulling people over. My bet is if we decided to pull people over on a random basis or set up a road block, you’d find all kinds of things, but that doesn’t mean that we should.

You could stop all traffic and say, well if it saves one kidnapped child, if it keeps one person from being taken, then wouldn’t it be worth it. To me, that is an argument for an un-free society.

I think most Americans don’t like the idea of government being able to pull you over just to find out if you’ve done something wrong because if they can do it for drunk driving, why not for everything?

In the United States, we’ve placed a value on freedom. People have sacrificed their lives for freedom, and I don’t think it’s a good idea for us to start surrendering that away.

Taken from Tuesday’s edition of The David Boze Show.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Related:
Oak Harbor parents prepare for funeral of third daughter
Washington lawmaker pushes checkpoints to cut DUI carnage