Currently, the penalty for a first time DWI offender is UP TO months in jail and UP TO $500 in fines; it is considered a Class B Misdemeanor. The second offense is a Class A Misdemeanor (up to 1 year in jail and up to $1,000 fine). A third offense bumps the penalty to a Class D Felony.
Every year we spend an estimated $37 billion dealing with alcohol related motor vehicle crashes. In 2012 alone, over 10,000 people were killed in alcohol related motor vehicle accidents. That’s one person dead every 51 minutes, 28-29 every day and nearly 850 each month.
That said, Littering is a Class A Misdemeanor. So we give someone who illegally operates what is, in essence a weapon, 3 chances before we really crackdown, but we give 2 to someone who throws a piece of paper out of the window?