# Penalties for drunk and distracted driving

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penalties-for-drunk-and-distracted-driving/744776>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [January 31, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penalties-for-drunk-and-distracted-driving/744776 "2016-01-31T20:20:23Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penalties-for-drunk-and-distracted-driving/744776/1 "2016-01-31T20:20:23Z")

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Drunk driving is treated as a very serious crime, and distracted driving is mostly ignored unless it leads to another violation. They are both extremely dangerous. How should they be treated in relation to each other?

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**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penalties-for-drunk-and-distracted-driving/744776/2 "2016-01-31T20:22:59Z")

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One is easy to obtain an objective measurement for, while the other relies on a cop claiming that he saw you distracted and you saying “nuh-uh!” so while both are de facto problematic, there is a clear reason why we can and do punish DUI more consistently.

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**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penalties-for-drunk-and-distracted-driving/744776/3 "2016-01-31T20:37:18Z")

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One is a momentary lapse. The other is a 20 mile trip of stupidity that hopefully ends with you finding your way home and not wrapped around a tree.

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**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penalties-for-drunk-and-distracted-driving/744776/4 "2016-01-31T20:45:41Z")

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Experiments show that drunk driving and distracted driving represent a similar level of impairment, but the actual crash statistics don’t reflect that. That might be partly because it’s a lot easier to determine if a driver was drunk than if they were fiddling with their radio, but the major issue is that alcohol impairs your judgement as well as your motor skills. Even if a drunk driver and a distracted driver do about as well around a closed course if they put their mind to it, in the real world the drunk driver is way more likely to be taking other risks, like severely speeding.

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**Author:** ![Asimovian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asimovian/32/172_2.png) [@Asimovian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asimovian)\
**Post date:** [January 31, 2016, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/penalties-for-drunk-and-distracted-driving/744776/5 "2016-01-31T23:32:13Z")

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Thread closed at the request of the OP.