More than 1,000 Americans, including 110 Californians, die each month in what is easily the most preventable of disasters: Alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents. That’s nearly one-third of all highway fatalities nationally and about 35 percent statewide. Yet drunken driving is not considered a serious enough offense in California to end driving privileges for multiple DUI offenders.

In 2006, the latest year for available figures, 154,337 Californians with two DUI convictions over the previous 10 years were driving with valid licenses. There were 27,641 with three DUI convictions, 5,335 with four convictions and 966 with five DUI convictions in a decade.

In fact, there are some drivers who have six, seven and eight DUI convictions who are still allowed to drive legally. That’s because drivers licenses generally are not permanently revoked unless there is an injury or death involved. Such a ridiculous standard needs to be permanently revoked.

One has to wonder just how many times someone drives under the influence of alcohol before he or she is caught. Even more disturbing is the fact that tens of thousands of California drivers did not learn from their first DUI or the second, or their third or subsequent conviction.

Anyone who has been convicted of three DUIs most likely has been driving while intoxicated many times. Certainly he or she has not been deterred by current drunken driving laws.

A third DUI conviction is a clear indication that the driver has a major alcohol problem and should result in the permanent loss of a driver’s license.

First and second offenders should face stiffer fines and a requirement to use ignition interlock devices for several years.

Some who oppose harsher DUI laws argue that taking an offender’s license is not going to prevent him or her from driving. That may be true. But coupled with far heavier fines and jail time for driving without a license more than likely would have a considerable deterrent effect.

As weak as they are, today’s DUI laws are stricter than they were in the past. The result has been a reduction in drunken driving accidents and fatalities.

However, more needs to be done to keep intoxicated people from driving. Drunken drivers are responsible for killing more than twice as many people every year than the total of all the U.S. fatalities in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past 61/2 years.

At the very least, no one should be allowed to operate a motor vehicle after three DUI convictions regardless of whether there was an injury or death involved.

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