Have Drunk Driving Laws Improved Over the Years?

In 1980 my sister got killed by a drunk driver. She was 18 and 8 days old. Her boyfriend who was 19 and her were heading back from a school function. It was about 9pm on a Thursday night and they were 3 miles from her home when a drunk driver ran a red light and hit them. Her boyfriend died instantly, she lived on a machine for 5 days till we had to make the hard decision to unplug the machine. They told us what time they were going to unplug her because we were donating her organs, and sent us home to make funeral arrangements. When time came that they told us they were going to take her to the Operating Room and unhook her was the hardest thing that we had ever been through.

While in the hospital the night of the accident the driver that was driving the car that hit her was in the waiting room, he wasn't taken to jail right away, they kept him there while waiting on the conditions of my sister, to see if she was going to survive the accident. He wasn't in handcuffs, but just sat there with his family surrounding him comforting him. He was only about 20 and as many intoxicated drivers, he didn't have a scratch on him.

They found illegal drugs in the car that hit them, whiskey bottles, and beer bottles. There were 4 people in the car 3 of them ran after the accident happened so that by the time the police got there they were no where to be found.

During the trial they had since this was his first offence, and they couldn't prove the drugs were his he wasn't charged with the drug charges. He was driving with a suspended license, so he did get charged with that and 2 counts of involuntary vehicle manslaughter. His sentence? 7 years of his driver's license suspended. There was no jail time. Now we all thought that was crazy after all he already had a suspended license when he was driving. But that is all he got.

So in the last 20 years has it gotten any stricter for a charge of drunk driving? There is no set law state to state. Every state is different. Some you have mandatory jail time, some you lose your license, but in North Carolina for example, if you are convicted for drunk driving you can apply for driving privileges, meaning that while you don't have a driver's license per say, they will grant you privileges to drive to and from work and necessary events. So really your license isn't suspended or revoked, you're just on restrictions. Now if I forget to pay a seatbelt fine in North Carolina, my license if revoked! No driving privileges. I have no rights to drive just by not paying a $100 fine. So drinking and driving may get you 48 hours in jail and pay to go to drug abuse classes and pay fines. But you still can drive a car legally.

Should states be required to punish drivers more harshly for drinking and driving? Or are we just becoming more accepting to the fact that it's one more hazard on the road? While great progress has been made since my sister got killed and the punishment has gotten harsher, it's still not where it needs to be.