DUI deaths in Seattle – once again our legislature has blood on its hands

Dori writes…

On a sunny Monday afternoon in Seattle’s Wedgwood neighborhood, a mom was walking with her 10-day-old infant and her in-laws.

In an instant, bodies were flying through the air.

The couple in their 60’s were both killed – the mom and infant are clinging to life.

According to police, they were struck by a pickup truck driven by 50-year-old Mark Mullan. Mullan’s arrest record for driving drunk is absolutely disgusting.

He was arrested on Dec. 26 for DUI, and again on Jan 14 for DUI. His sister-in-law told the Seattle Times:

“He had struggled and struggled with the bottle,” she said. “He’s a terrific guy but he couldn’t stop drinking.

“We were all afraid he was going to kill himself, but never imagined this. We are all just sick, sick, sick over this,” she said.

She said Mullan was “a nice guy”…

For 19 years, I’ve been calling on our state legislature to toughen DUI laws in our state. But because alcohol is the chosen drug of legislators, judges, Supreme Court justices, city and county council members, cops and lawyers, they all refuse to enact truly meaningful laws that would act as a deterrent.

So far this session, our legislature has introduced bills that would make our state language gender-neutral (no more Freshmen in high schools and colleges – they’ll be “first-year students”); an unconstitutional bill that would allow warrant-less searches of our homes; and countless gun control measures.

But while our politicians are obsessed with guns, they turn a blind eye to the far more deadly threat – drunk driving.

My solution: The first drunk driving offense shouldn’t destroy someone’s life – they should get a weekend in jail. Second offense, a year in jail. Third offense, three strikes you’re out. Lock them up for ten years. If someone is so stupid and so selfish to drive drunk after that first offense, we should lock them up before they injure or kill someone.

Critics of my plan say we don’t have the jail space to lock all those people up. I say that’s not a factor because most people would stop driving drunk if they knew there was real punishment attached to the crime.

Our legislature can get back to work on changing “manholes” to “utility holes.” And, because alcohol is the lubricant that greases the skids of politics, they can continue to ignore this plague. After all, they don’t want to create a punishment that might ensnare one of their own.

Read more:
2 people killed, 2 injured in North Seattle crash
Dave Ross: There’s no second amendment for cars