The Source of the an Unacceptable Number
of innocent Victims in The USA Is Drunk Driving
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Four Crosses
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January 18, 2016
Revised February 02, 2016
If this doesn’t shock you, it should. Allow me to explain.
Starting in the 60’s when
America went car crazy, 50,000 deaths and 150,000 disabled occurred. The reason
appears to be the that these deadly “accidents” were caused by drunk driving
and now we must add the distraction of
texting and other forms of communication while driving. 50,000 lives is also the number of soldiers
lost in the entire Vietnam war.
If you want supporting data
for these numbers just Google “innocent deaths by drunk drivers” and you will
get a dozen or so hits, that provide factual support for the numbers that I am
using in this essay.
Auto safety devices (which
the GOP fought against) like air bags and crumple zones, reduced the numb of
fatalities to 30,000 by the 90’s.
The math: 50,000 per year in
the 60’s 70’s & 80’s = 150,000
30,000
per year in the 90’s 2000 through 2009 and approx. 20,00 in 2010-2016= 80,000
for a grand (not really grand but tragic) total of 230,000.
Please don’t nit pick the
numbers. Every group of responders to
these tragic Motor Vehicle Accidents, has a different perception of the number
of deaths caused by drunk driving, and this includes the first responders, the
EMTs who transport the victims to the hospital, and the surgeons who attempt to
save them,
The 30,000/year is in spite of
improvement in the time between the accident and transporting the victim to the
hospital, and improved techniques by the EMTs and the surgeons.
The 230,000 is more than all
the victims of innocent deaths in the same time period, except the Iraq war
which is estimated that 250,000 civilians were killed. Our loss of soldiers was 8,000. I chose these numbers for the sake of a
discussion revealing the negligence of ourselves and our elected
officials. Even if the number of deaths
is off by 50%, it is still and unacceptable number.
This is even more despicable
because a solution is known. The French
have a tough law: DWI and you go strait to jail for 2 years. No trial, no appeals. Result: France has only a handful of
fatalities. The French love their wine
and at night everyone has been drinking.
If they drink away from home, they take a taxi or some other alternative
to driving.
So why doesn’t our government
adopt these tough laws that have been proven to work? It is my speculation that lawmaking in the
USA, at both the Federal and State levels is not done in the conference rooms
but at cocktail “parties” where virtually everyone is drunk or has enough
alcohol to make them illegal drivers. Thus if they passed tough laws like the
French, they would be some of the first violators that are swiftly
caught and punished by the
laws they pass.
The Party in power is opposed
to any government action (as they have drifted so far to the right), especially
laws that protect people. Lincoln the
man who defined Conservative politics in this country, said: “The purpose of government it to do for the people what
they cannot do for themselves.” What is
best for the people is not even a source of discussion.
The damage to our bodies is
not limited to Motor Vehicle Accidents.
As we drive on these freeways at high speed, death is only a couple of
seconds away. This stress causes
physiological stress as we are in a “fight or flight” mode. These stressors from driving, is one more cause
of mental illness, especially depression and anxiety. High blood pressure is also caused by these
cumulative stressors. When people from
small towns visit our cities, they avoid the freeways as their common sense
tells them that the danger far out weighs the speed of getting to places. Those of us that commute regularly become
numb to the stress of freeway driving.
Shame on us for not
pressuring our lawmakers to pass tough laws like the French. Our Governments, both Federal and State, (especially
Texas), have stated policies that are against “more government”
So “My Fellow Americans” (as
LBJ used to say) let’s turn of the TV’s, video games and other distractions and
get this job done. 30,000 innocent lives
per year depend on taking this action.
The fact that we have already
lost approximately 230,000 lives, is shameful.
But we can do better. There seems to be a shift in the
effectiveness of the 99% protesting efforts.
There have been several victories, like forcing Shell oil to abandon a
plan to develop drilling and pipe lines in the Alaskan wilderness.
Morris Creedon-McVean, DO
A gentleman and a scholar
Austin, Texas
