Drunken Driving
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Kudos to the president for taking on the alcohol and restuarant industries, killers of the dream of a national 0.08% blood-alcohol concentration to determine drunken driving. “Clinton Calls for Stricter Law on Drunken Driving” (Dec. 27) correctly focused on “the most frequently committed violent crime in America,” an observation long made by impaired-driving preventionists.
But now that Dr. Ricardo Martinez, administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is calling driving under the influence a “violent crime,” perhaps the House of Representatives will stop taking the side of the booze merchants and pass the 0.08% limit, a moderate standard that is now law in 16 states and the District of Columbia, including California.
It is high time our federal representatives took the high ground on the No. 1 killer of young Americans in the 15-to-24 age category: traffic crashes involving alcoholic beverages, chiefly beer.
RAY CHAVIRA, Member, L.A. County Commission on Alcoholism, Palmdale
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