It's time to buckle down on drunken driving

A 16-year-old boy is dead. He was struck by a van driven by a drunken driver on Sept. 4, and left for dead on Bogard Road in Wasilla at 10:30 p.m. The license of the driver had been revoked in January -- for driving under the influence. It was his third drunken-driving arrest since 1993. Now a 16-year-old boy is dead.

The boy's friend witnessed the fatal accident and tried to flag down passing motorists, but none would stop. The young man had to run nearly a mile to his home to get help. His friend was pronounced dead at Valley Hospital at 11:10 p.m.

The drunken driver didn't stop. He was home wondering if he'd hit a moose or a person when the young man was pronounced dead. The police arrested the hit-and-run drunken driver the next day. He had been arrested three previous times for drunken driving. This time he was charged with manslaughter, criminal negligent homicide, felony leaving the scene and driving with a revoked license.

When will it be enough?

Maybe the drunken driver is battling alcoholism. Maybe the revoked license makes it difficult for people to make it to work and pay the bills. Maybe some of those people decide to break the law and drive to work with a revoked license.

For the sake of compassion, we'll say the law should not make it impossible for people to pay the bills. We won't forget, however, that this man was not on his way to work. He chose to drive on a revoked license. He was drunk. He was allegedly on his way to buy cocaine.

He killed a 16-year-old boy because he broke a law he'd already broken three other times. Our compassion doesn't extend that far.

This man should not have been driving. The judicial system went as far as it could to keep him off the road. It revoked

his license.

That's not far enough. We shouldn't have to wait for a repeat drunken driver to kill someone before applying strict consequences. This man had demonstrated that he would drive drunk even after being punished.

We urge our legislators to toughen the penalties for drunken driving -- and especially for repeat offenders. Repeated drunken driving must incur a significant jail sentence.

No penalty now can soothe the pain of the dead boy's parents. The right to drive is not protected. The right to life is.