To the editor:

Although I find many of the current bills in the Legislature detrimental to consumers, children and families, one of the most outrageous is SB 335.

This bill would allow drunken drivers and other persons at fault to use an injured victim’s health insurance benefits to reduce the drunken driver’s responsibility to pay for the injuries or death of the other person. In effect, this bill gives drunken drivers a discount instead of making them responsible. If injured by a drunken driver, a victim could end up using his or her lifetime limit on health insurance.

It seems ironic that we are becoming much more strict in the criminal context of drunken driving, and in the civil justice system, where the victim can actually be provided with some type of compensation for injuries, we are letting the drunken off the hook.