THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, May 24, 1996 TAG: 9605240002
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: 51 lines
Newport News Circuit Judge Robert P. Frank last week sentenced a drunken driver who killed three people to 60 years in prison - the maximum punishment allowed for three counts of aggravated involuntary manslaughter.
The judge suspended 30 years of the sentence, but ordered Raul Alcantara, 34, to serve the other 30 - 10 years for each of his victims. With Virginia's new no-parole policy, Alcantara will be off the roads and out of society until he is about 60 years old.
That's where he belongs.
It's time the courts took drunken driving as seriously as most of the public does - especially those whose lives have been tragically changed forever by the wanton acts of a drunken driver.
Mothers Against Drunk Drivers, an organization of families who have lost loved ones to drunks behind the wheel, praised Judge Frank's sentencing, declaring it one of the toughest on record.
If judges uniformly inflicted harsh sentences on all drunken drivers - even those who have not yet killed - it would be a powerful deterrent to drunken driving.
Sober society is growing increasingly weary of intoxicated drivers who careen along the highways, killing at random, safe in the knowledge that judges are reluctant to incarcerate drunken drivers for long terms.
Drunken drivers in Newport News now know what's waiting for them if, God forbid, they find themselves in Judge Frank's court.
People like this drunken driver ought to be scorned and locked up. Alcantara killed two college students and a recent college graduate when he slid behind the wheel of his pickup truck last August and drove the wrong way on I-64, slamming head-on into a car with four young people inside. The driver of the car survived.
The National Transportation Safety Board reports that 16,589 Americans were killed in alcohol-related crashes in 1994 - the latest figures available. That's one death every 32 minutes. Two out of every five Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some time in their lives, according to the government agency.
But there is some good news. Driving while intoxicated is on the decline. Between 1993 and 1994, alcohol-related accidents dropped by 5 percent.
Alcantara's crime and punishment should be a cautionary tale for all motorists throughout this Memorial Day weekend. This is traditionally one of the deadliest periods on the nation's roads.
In 1994, 481 people were killed on the road during the holiday period. Almost half of those deaths - 232 - were in alcohol-related crashes.
Thanks to Judge Frank, one less drunken driver is likely to be on the road this holiday. by CNB