Eight-time DUI Offender Kills Colorado Family and Himself

We see the horrors of drunk driving all too often. Lives cut short, loved ones lost, hearts broken, and dreams shattered. It is somehow agonizingly alarming to think an eight-time DUI offender was driving drunk when he killed a Colorado family and himself this week in Weld County.

According to 9 News, police think that 44-year-old Rigoberto Macias -Marquez, of LaSalle, was drunk Sunday night when his pickup crossed the median near Greeley, and crashed into a minivan killing himself, and seriously injuring a woman while killing her husband and two children.

Court records indicate Macias-Marquez had been arrested no less than eight times since 1997 for drunk driving.

Each year in Colorado, more than 150 people lose their lives each year in alcohol-related crashes. How many of these deaths are preventable?

I believe in giving people second chances in life, but when it comes to drunk driving and the endangerment of my life -- and everyone else who is on the road -- there is a limit. It should take a lot fewer than eight violations for DUI offenders to be taken off the streets and highways in our state.

Obviously, there is a flaw or a breakdown in the system. Until our society truly begins to take drunk driving and the dangers of alcohol seriously, people are going to continue to die. Children will continue to lose their parents, parents losing a son or daughter, and husbands and wives losing their mate.

It all starts with individuals drinking responsibly, but in the end, it's our justice system that apparently is too easily letting drunk drivers get back behind the wheel.

Eight times this guy got busted for drunk driving. Eight times! It looks to me like it's the system that's busted.