Drink Driver Kills 4 Children in Sydney

One of the saddest things in a long time happened here last night in Epping, Sydney. A group of children were walking on the footpath to their local shop to get ice creams. A drunk driver mounted the footpath and killed four of them, three from the same family.

Most Aussies are shocked and very saddened today. When will people be even remotely responsible.

@ClubEsquire-Melina -- as long as the laws are lax, this will continue to happen.  There just isn't the political will to hold those who willingly get behind the wheel drunk, responsible for the death they are causing.  My mantra is: if you drive while drunk, or texting when you shouldn't and you seriously hurt someone or kill someone you should have to spend the rest of your life in jail.  No parole either.

i'm so sorry. i hope it wasn't terrorism. r.i.p.

I so agree Inge but focus in court seems to be on future harm to the ‘murderer’s’ family and not the victim’s family. I mean, how does this work?

God, how I feel sad for them too but focus should not be allowed to shift like that. We have multiple drink driving offenders here, as I imagine you do. But that just represents the times they are caught, not the total times they’ve driven whilst off their top with booze. The courts should take this into account. They are habitual drink drivers with no concern for anyone.

Anyone can make a bad choice, a bad decision, a mistake. I believe the first time they are caught, provided they don’t kill anyone, the courts should be lenient and by that I mean, confiscation of the vehicle to be sold at auction and proceeds to hapless victims of road trauma, mandatory 5 years disqualification and 12 months gaol and financial reparation for any damage. All not negotiable.

Second offence - car confiscation, disqualification for life and ten years gaol.

Drink driving where a death has been the result - 20 years - mandatory.

If our doing no good ‘doooooo gooders’ were reading this I’d be flamed to hell and back and one of the first questions they’d ask is, “What if it was your beloved son or daughter?” Well, all I can say is that it would be devastating but out of my hands because of legislation. I also take comfort in the knowledge that we’ve brought them up better than that and it’s really not a probability on the horizon. But I would answer, “what about the son or daughter, now deceased of some other parents.”

Generational attitude change might save us from some road trauma. In my days it was much more socially acceptable to get behind the wheel while intoxicated. It is not socially acceptable any more. Let’s hope our millennials takes that attitude forward and legislate appropriately too.

Thankfully not Sill.

@Club Esquire-Melina -- those who lose their license just keep driving.  It's the wild, wild west here.  The worst thing now is people getting shot and killed because of road rage.  I keep telling my husband to keep his cool, not to blow his horn but to just continue as if nothing had happened. He assures me he'll be good but I am sure if someone cuts him off he will blow his horn, which means he'll risk being shot. Just a week or two ago a woman with a passenger as well as her daughter in the back were cut off by a driver.  She blew her horn.  The driver pulled up to her car and shot into the woman's car hitting the little girl in the backseat.  She had to have several operations after a bullet hit one of her kidneys.  Again, this is something that the government could punish harshly but they won't.  They'll just let society tear each other up.

guns are evil. drunks should not be allowed to drive. period.

It is sad and frightening Inge. We do suffer the road rage punch ups down here with the odd fatality but thankfully shootings are very rare because of gun legislation. Good Lord in America where guns rule it must be terrifying. You would just never know. That is beyond terrifying.

I don’t totally agree with the legislation here but I don’t see an alternative. I believe everyone should be defensively armed in the home but how do you Police it? You could never stop certain people from taking their guns into the street.

The one thing that frightens me about America is guns. You have such a strong and wealthy gun lobby too. I don’t see anything changing in the immediate future.

PS...Yes Sill, guns are evil, or can be. Drink drivers are just as evil. They don’t see the correlation though.

drunks with guns are worse. two neighbors shot each other the other day in detroit. two women. they had an argument. instead of being adults they pulled out their guns. one of them won't do that again and we hope the second one learned something. 

trust me, i am anti these second amendment ammotheist nutters. they are not a, 'well reguilated militia', by any means. they are a plague on our country, trust me. but many of them have been helping thin the herd of their kind and it raises awareness to the public. we need to divide our country but we don't have the logistics for it. 

as for drunk drivers... maybe cars could have breath tests installed that you have to pass or your car won't start?