Drunk Drivers

Every year at this time, I read all the statistics regarding death on the highways due to drinking. I always say, “It’s a terrible thing” or “Why do people do it,” etc. and forget about it until next year.

It was the same this year until last Saturday evening. A friend and co-worker, her husband and sister suffered a brutal death in a head-on collision on the streets of Glendale as they were returning home from Christmas shopping. Her children were badly injured (Metro, Dec. 24).

According to reports, the driver of the other car was drunk and driving in excess of 75 m.p.h. on surface streets. He was not hospitalized.

It is time to stop this senseless slaughter. We need drunk driving laws with teeth in them that will not only punish offenders when convicted but take them off the streets. We also need a court system that will convict these public menaces, not release them due to some quirk in the law.

BRUCE E. KRANS

Encino