Video: Police plan campaign against drunken driving

With recent studies showing that text messaging while driving is MUCH more dangerous and common than drunk driving, don't you think it's time that the police crack down on all the text-messaging drivers too?

It's NOT the alcohol thats the problem. It's the Driving WHILE Drinking. Too many think that it's ' ok ' to go have a few @ the Local Watering Hole and then drive home.

These are the most dangerous because they are in a comfort zone. They are among friends so they get a sense of doing nothing wrong, they know the neighborhood/streets so they feel safe...............

..............and then run over 3 young girls playing in a driveway and 'think' it was trash cans.

Personal Responsibility.

Why does 'your' right of having a good time impinge upon MY right to safe roads ?

It's US, the American People, that are making these Laws necessary. Show some personal responsibilty and CONTROL your base needs and wants and all these Laws will be un-necessary. Correct ?

This article lacked the full story. There was very little information about the Simulator or the Program. It is hardly "silly" as described by one reader. Mothers Against Drunk Driving and The Virginia State Police have teamed together in a very unique way to bring an interactive message to military and driver-aged young adults about the reality of driving impaired. Each month, Area Virginia State Police offices conduct several traffic safety talks at local schools and military bases. This joint H.E.A.R.T. program has been positively received by those groups as a tool to enhance safety education. Imagine the young person, driver's license still fresh in his pocket, behind the supervised wheel of this Simulator. Sure, he agrees to get in because it seems "fun." As he experiences his inability to drive in a straight line or the frustration of hitting "another cone," and perhaps the embarrassment of realizing the trooper sits witnessing all this... he makes the cognitive choice...'this is not for me.' So, what might seem "ridiculous" or "silly" to some well-meaning grownups who have not experienced the program is taken very seriously by M.A.D.D. and the State Police. Because the

...the problem. We are in a bedroom military waterfront town littered with bars and the shipping industry. The boys from the service and those that service the military don't have to drive far to find a watering hole. What do we think is going to happen? We have millions of single men with money in their pockets and plenty of single ladies out to grab some of it.
This translates to BIG business. Someone dying on the road from the result of a DUI doesn't impact the tax revenue one bit.

This article is nothing but propaganda covering up an issue that will never go away. If you want to avoid a drunk driver, stay away from the oceanfront and downtown Norfolk. Most of all... don't be out on the road at closing time.

My friend got his second DUI and was looking at mandatory jailtime and a serious fine. The cop showed up in court without proof of the first DUI, which is an essential element to a second DUI charge. My friend's attorney convinced the cop to not ask for a continuance to get the proof. The judge would have definitely granted the continuance if the officer asked for it. The result was my friend got a restricted license and ASAP class. Guess the cop didn't care enough about stopping DUI to have to come in to court in a month. Great for my friend.

Every year many people are Killed by drunk drivers, all the imformation in the world is not going to stop people from getting behind the wheel of a car or truck to drive when drunk. Give them jail time and most are out there doing it again. Seem's they should outlaw beer and liquor. People don't have no idea what it feels like to lose someone to a drunk driver unless it happens too them. I can tell you it's horrible. And might I add people shouldn't be talking on cell phone's while driving. Someone should be looking into that

That was a pretty short article. Perhaps it was just a way to fill space on an otherwise slow news day.

Don't be hitting on any potential mates while you're attending the HEART DUI simulator - by using those goggles you could end up with a coyote ugly one! :P

but this article seems like it was just a "cut and paste" job from the State Police press release. If that's all it takes to be a journalist, can I be hired part-time? My MS Office skills are impeccable.

How about educate people about tailgating which causes almost all the accident I see daily? I actually saw a seven car pileup on 264 just a few weeks ago.

The multitude of silly programs only entertain the people that wouldn't drink and drive anyway. The offenders are seldom if ever in attendance of these programs. The problem comes from the court system and the light to no sentences given to first time and multiple offenders. I have seen one young man sentenced to attend a "program" for DUI several times. Each time he waits until just before the follow-up hearing before the judge, then enrolls in the "program", goes to a few meetings before the second hearing then quits going after the judge dismisses the charges. In one such incident he caused a wreck. An elderly man suffered a heart attack and later died in the hospital. The young man's lawyer got all the charges dismissed somehow and he went on to be charged with DUI three more times before he finally ended up doing two years in prison for robbery. He has recently been released from prison and has already boasted how he now has a "clean" driving record. If the DUI laws on the books were enforced by the courts, we'd get most serious DUI offenders off the road.

John Marshall, state secretary of public safety, and Col. W. Steven Flaherty, State Police superintendent are two of the most inept, unqualified people that's ever headed these important state agencies. Flaherty is unable to come to grips with or deal with the illegal drugs, complete disregard for traffic laws by the trucking industry, lowering of standards of the officers on the street. Flaherty is a political appointee whose strings are pulled by those higher up who are in the pockets of the trucking lobby and others we probably will never hear about. He is about as ineffective as head of our state police as anyone could ever be.

Instead he comes up with DUI check points and makes sure that the media is invited to the announcement. Drunk driving crashes actually are going down as more people are being responsible but the state police is stuck in a mindset they have to be doing something visible for the public.

I wish just once that an announcement would be made that had some benefit for upholding all the laws of the Commonwealth, not just Flaherty's feel good public relations events.

The only way to fix this problem is to put a stop to the blood-alcohol content tests. You cannot assign a number to how alcohol affects a person. Some people can drink a fifth of whiskey and have no effect. Others get stupid off of one glass of wine.

Do away with the BAC tests, and make the Field Sobriety Test the determining factor. And it is either pass or fail. If they pass, they go on their merry way. If they fail, mandatory jury trial, and, if convicted:

1st offense, loss of license for one year.
2nd offense, 1 year in jail and loss of license for 5 years
3rd and subsequent offenses, 5 years in prison and loss of license for life.

Make me a judge for one day.It would take a year to unravel everything I did. Every case would be heard,evidence sufficient to convict would be used to suspend all fines. The consequence. ONE FULL year in jail,loss of car,drivers license suspended for 10 months after that. NO APPEAL allowed. Its the appeals that screws the system. Certain offenses need to not allow appeals, this is one of them. Cops go to great lengths to take DUI's off the street. Support them !!!!!