LETTER: Clark County must get tough on DUI offenders

Enough is enough. DUI fatalities in Clark County, with rare exception, are so common that they receive two- or three-inch columns in Section B of the Review-Journal. There isn’t anyone who is unaware of the dangers and consequences of driving impaired. Unlike a person with bad intentions toward a specific person, a drunken or impaired person is a danger to everyone in a public open space.

It is time to eliminate misdemeanor DUI and replace all events as felonies with minimum mandatory prison sentences. Fatal actions should be charged as murder. In addition, any vehicle operated as such should be impounded as physical evidence of the crime and held until adjudication. At the conclusion of the case, there should be a civil hearing to forfeit the vehicle, with the burden of proof upon the owner to show no culpability in allowing or facilitating the offender access to the vehicle. Any driver of a vehicle with a revoked, suspended or canceled license should also lose the vehicle, as well as uninsured vehicles. Take action to make public safety safe.