LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — District Attorney Steve Wolfson had a message Monday after another weekend with a suspected DUI death: hit the brakes, Las Vegas.
"I'm going to issue a challenge to our viewers, and that challenge is to slow down," Wolfson said. "I mean, I drive these freeways every single day, and I drive the speed limit, and I challenge Las Vegas to slow down. You know, think about the kinds of lives you are hurting. You are killing people. You are ruining people's lives, not just the people you injure in a traffic collision."
VIDEO: Steve Sebelius talks to Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson about DUI penalties
Wolfson has seen more than his share of DUI crashes, including one just outside Arbor View High School in May that killed McKenzie Scott, a senior just about to graduate and another in 2022 in North Las Vegas that killed seven members of a family.
WATCH | Alyssa Bethencourt talks to loved ones and friends about the loss of 18-year-old McKenzie Scott
He says the growing death toll shows one thing is explicitly clear: "You know, I've said it many times, what we're doing now isn't working, so we've got to do something different to deter people from driving while impaired."
The 2025 Legislature took up the DUI issue in several bills. One, by Clark County Republican state Sen. John Steinbeck, increased DUI penalties and lowered the threshold at which a person is referred for alcohol treatment. But another, by a group of Republican senators, that would have allowed a first-time DUI offender to be charged with vehicular homicide, failed to get a vote.
Watch our extended interview with Clark County District Attorney
Wolfson said he favors a bill that would allow prosecutors to charge DUI offenders with murder if they engage in reckless driving, excessive speed and red-light running while impaired.
VIDEO: Ryan Ketcham talks to locals about recent DUI crash
"There's a malice component," Wolfson said. "A reckless indifference, not just speeding while impaired, but you're making the conscious decision to go 100 miles an hour, to weave in and out of traffic, running red lights. I mean, that's murder. That's murder. That's as bad as taking a gun and shooting and killing somebody."
Wolfson also suggested adding more police officers and conducting more traffic stops, and making more arrests, and a minimum three-day jail stay for DUI suspects. And he said more public service announcements — perhaps at community meetings and chamber of commerce monthly gatherings — would draw attention to the issue.
"There are meetings all over this community every single day. This is an important issue. We need people to step up and do more talking," he said.