On Sunday, a 17-year-old North Carolina resident named Laura Fortenberry was killed in a car wreck.

While any death, particularly of one so young, is tragic, this one is equally outrageous — the driver of the car which crossed a center line and struck Fortenberry’s vehicle was, according to police, driven by 28-year-old Howard Pasour, who has been charged with driving drunk, among other charges, in the case.

Pasour has three times been convicted of impaired driving, and just three months ago was charged with driving on a revoked operator’s permit.

Our question is why was this man not in jail, thus avoiding Sunday’s fatal wreck?

Even a monitoring system whereby those convicted of drunk driving must wear an ankle bracelet which monitors and electronically reports a person’s blood alcohol content is flawed and failed the victim in this case. That monitoring system, according to state law, can only be applied to one convicted of DUI for 60 days. Afterward, the person is left up to his own devices as to whether he can avoid drinking and driving. Given Pasour’s history, no betting person would have put a wager against Pasour eventually violating the law — he’s clearly shown the law means little to him.

That happened in Pasour’s case. He was fitted with an ankle device in January, but it had been removed some time ago, when the 60-day limit expired. Once he was free of this monitoring device he apparently went back to his old ways.

Unfortunately, that is the case with many who are convicted of driving under the influence — they just don’t care. And no wonder, if the judicial system will allow someone like Pasour to go free time and time again, why should he worry about the consequences of his actions?

We understand some judges’ desire to see rehabilitation rather than jail time if that’s possible, and certainly in this time of budgetary constraints, given the cost of incarcerating someone verses putting them on a home-monitoring system.

But there is no budget crisis which trumps the value of a human life, and if police charges turn out to be correct, the state’s lax drunk driving policies, along with Pasour’s inexcusable actions, stole this teen-ager’s life.

We hope this serves as a wake up call, and if no one else will, we urge our local legislators to address this in the 2011 session of the General Assembly. Jail terms should be imposed on those who collect multiple drunk driving convictions; home monitoring programs should be expanded well beyond 60 days; and those found guilty of killing or injuring others in drunk driving wrecks should be locked away for a long, long time to protect the rest of society.