Apr 28, 2004 3 min read

A DUI victims’ impact panel isn’t for people like Timothy A. Butler of Armstrong County. They won’t ever get it. Police last week charged Butler with his ninth drunken-driving charge. Butler, who can’t even apply for the privilege of driving a car until 2018, allegedly was drunk when he crashed into a friend’s car. Her blood-alcohol content was .20 percent, way above the state’s legal limit. His? Who knows? Butler refused the test. So, it will be up to police and prosecutors to build yet another drunken-driving case against Butler. He already has eight convictions. What’s one more?

Fortunately, habitual drunks like Butler who pollute our roadways are the rarity. For them, the new graduated DUI penalty law ought to catch up with them at some point and lock them away so they can do us no harm.

They’ve been in enough accidents, been given enough second, third, fourth chances that they have shown they aren’t going to wise up. And sob stories by some victims whose lives were torn apart because of some other drunken driver certainly aren’t going to sober up the Timothy Butlers of the world.

But they just might work on first- or second-time offenders, and they just might stop the creation of future Timothy Butlers. Someone pegged on a first drunken-driving arrest just might swear off booze and cars if they had to listen to someone like Nancy Oppedal.

Fourteen years ago, Oppedal lost her husband, son, daughter and friend when a 19-year-old drunk plowed into her family’s station wagon. For three months, Oppedal fought off death. When she recovered she learned that the teen had prior DUI convictions.

Why did he keep driving drunk? Oppedal, of Adams County, who recently went to Harrisburg to lobby lawmakers to form victim impact panels in each of the 67 counties, said she couldn’t get an answer because the accident also killed the teen. She was unable to find any attempts to rehabilitate him. Had the teen been told a story similar to Oppedal’s on his first arrest, would anything have changed?

The idea is to establish victim impact panels in each county. Some counties, such as Bucks, already have panels consisting of three victims of DUI accidents who tell the offender how drunken driving affected their lives. The offender later must write a letter to the panel’s victims.

Does it work? There’s only anecdotal evidence to suggest that it does. But it is certainly a program worth exploring. Anything to stop people like Timothy Butler is worth trying.

We would suggest that regardless of whether the state requires it, Fayette County should begin to take a look at establishing such a program. We would also suggest that it be something to consider with first-time offenders – especially underage drunken drivers – rather than wait for the repeat offender to develop.