Posted by Paly Student, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Apr 29, 2008 at 9:44 pm

I found this interesting story about teenage drunk driving on the Paly Voice. Check it out for more information about the issue!

Web Link

Posted by parent, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Apr 30, 2008 at 12:08 am

Well underage drinking is an interesting issue.

Because of zero tolerance anyone with even a little tiny bit of alcohol in their system is considered legally drunk, even when they are in no way, shape, or form actually drunk.

This will be enough to skew the statistics.

Posted by Parent, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Apr 30, 2008 at 9:23 am

KTVU Fox channel 2, is doing a report today saying that so much teen drinking is due to Parents giving the alcohol to appear cool.

This is horrendous if it is true.

Posted by Mark, a resident of the Leland Manor/Garland Drive neighborhood, on Apr 30, 2008 at 12:11 pm

Of course its true; alcohol is regulated and difficult for underage individuals to procure on their own. Of course, if mom and dad happen to have a liquor collection around (which many do), then it becomes easy to get. Of course, instead of society (and especially parents) taking some amount of personal responsibility for the issue, which could involve some form of inconvenience (i.e. locking liquor up), we instead throw money at addressing the symptoms instead of the problem. Its easier to have more cops enforcing DUI arrests or increase funding for the justice system then actually going after the root of the problem I suppose.

Posted by Mark, a resident of the Leland Manor/Garland Drive neighborhood, on Apr 30, 2008 at 12:14 pm

Oh, and I would say that 1 in 10 is a very small number compared to the reality. People are probably being somewhat dishonest and unwilling to cop to their irresponsible past actions. Also, personal interpretation is an issue here, since many of the 90% of people surveyed who denied driving drunk probably have driven with a BAC over the legal limit. Just because you weren't stumbling drunk doesn't mean you weren't intoxicated.

Posted by Ada, a resident of the Midtown neighborhood, on May 4, 2008 at 9:13 pm

I support the idea of raising fines for all traffic violations, and especially for drunk driving. The extra funds can be spent on improving roads, local parks, etc. If the fine for speeding is $400 - $600 instead of $200-$300 people would likely be more cautious.

Posted by Mark, a resident of the Leland Manor/Garland Drive neighborhood, on May 5, 2008 at 3:54 pm

"I support the idea of raising fines for all traffic violations, and especially for drunk driving. The extra funds can be spent on improving roads, local parks, etc. If the fine for speeding is $400 - $600 instead of $200-$300 people would likely be more cautious. "

I believe the current cost of a Drunk Driving violation (and accompanying legal fees, etc.) is already very, very high. I'm not sure making it more costly would do much, if anything.