Drunk Driving Fatality in Las Vegas
Mon, Dec 21, 2009
Las Vegas just added another fatality due to a drunk driving accident this past week. Jason P. Swogger was arrested after he collided with Mark Poole’s car on December 17th. The injuries Mr. Poole received were too traumatic and he died on the way to the hospital. Mr. Swogger was treated at St. Rose Dominican Hospital and was determined to have been drinking prior to the accident.
Even with the crack down on drunk driving accidents over the past several years, they still seem to be happening at alarming rates. There are around 17,000 deaths due to alcohol related auto accidents every year. Programs like MADD, DUI checkpoints and TV adverting seem to do little to bring down that number. Even a 10% decrease in DUI related fatalies would save around 1,700 lives each year. That’s 1,700 less families destroyed.
It’s hard to say what the next steps should be. The penalties for drinking and driving are bigger than ever. Clubs and bars are being held accountable for over serving their customers and there are enough PSA’s on the subject to make every person over the age of 18 well aware of the problem. Is this a cultural epidemic? Are Americans willing to accept tens of thousands of preventable deaths every year? These questions are still up for debate since there is nothing to support a turn around in the statistics.
Jason is going to his court date on 6/22/2010 and lets hope clark county has the balls not to plea bargin with him as he took the life of my daughters father and why because he had to drink. This was Jason’s 2 DUI, his first one was 1 year to the day he killed Mark Keith Poole, the father of my daughter. He should and everyone else who drinks and drive and kills anyone or does any harm to them should rott in prison.
This man changed my life forever. And not in a good way. I hope that he gets punished to the full extent of the law! To stall his court dates is not going to help him. He killed a human being who meant a lot to many people. It is not fair that Mark will never get to enjoy the rest of his life because this man stole it from him! I want him to rot in jail so no one else will have to go through what we have gone through.
This article does a good job articulating this area!