No, that's not a typo. This time I got the title right. A New Mexico man was arrested on his twenty-second drunk driving offense.
And New Mexico's politicians tell us that we have the strictest DUI laws on the books. We do, but those laws are not enforced enough. Our legislators and governors (current and past) enact laws with ever stiffer penalties, and our law enforcement works overtime to catch and prosecute drunk drivers, but our judges over and over again see fit to turn drunk drivers -- repeat drunk drivers, mind you -- back loose to drink and drive again.
Delano T. Vigil of Guadalupita, NM, was arrested Monday, August 24, near Espanola, KOAT reported. State police said the 51-year-old man was so drunk, he had to be taken by ambulance to Christus St. Vincent hospital in Santa Fe.
He blew a 0.393 on the blood-alcohol test; the state limit for being legally intoxicated is 0.080 percent. Yes, he was five-fold past drunk when he was arrested.
According to NM state police, records showed Vigil has been arrested five times in New Mexico for driving drunk and at least 16 times elsewhere. At the time of his arrest, he was driving on a revoked driver's license, and he had three outstanding warrants for his arrest, one each in Bernalillo, Sandoval, and San Miguel Counties, and all three DUI-related.
Twenty two drunk driving arrests. Why was this man behind the wheel instead of behind bars? It's New Mexico, drunk driving capitol of the world, that's why, and our courts seem content to keep it that way.
This despite widespread news that New Mexico's drunk driving fatality rate is actually going down. This year alone, New Mexico has had two high-profile crashes in which the innocent were killed and the drunk, driving the wrong way and repeat offenders, survived. It won't be good enough until the people who choose again and again to get drunk and drive are locked away.
It won't be good enough until they're locked away for good.
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