Message in a bottle

Flo Martin

My husband and I like to walk, and now that I’m semi-retired, we walk

just about everywhere. We also pick up trash along the way and then

head for the closest trash receptacle. Today, I picked up an empty

wine bottle lying on a grassy parking strip, within 2 feet of the

street. It was probably tossed out of a moving car. Hey, don’t get me

wrong. I like wines (I have a great collection of more than 100

bottles), but this stuff was bad -- a 2002 “rot-gut” cab at 14%

alcohol. Total content: 36 ounces or nine 4-ounce servings. Total

alcohol content: 4.68 ounces or .52 ounces per serving.

I seriously doubt that the passing car was a stretch Rolls and

that the occupants were adults sipping from crystal ware. We’re

talking teeny boppers in a hot rod here, and chugalugging was the

portion du jour. That wine bottle contained more than four shots of

pure alcohol. You get the message, yes? Another alcohol-related death

or injury waiting to happen.

One of my regular reads is the online Mothers Against Drunk

Driving newsletter. (Both a teenage family member and several of my

teenage students have died at the hands of a drunk driver.) The

latest issue focuses on the devastation caused by people who drink

and then drive.

“Last year, we served more than 22,000 victims and survivors in

navigating the legal system and dealing with grief ... With more than

17,400 killed and half a million more injured in alcohol-related

traffic crashes every year, our nation’s leaders must be called upon

to keep the nation free from the harm of drunk driving ... Drunk

driving -- the nation’s most frequently committed violent crime --

must be stopped.”

My God, I thought, that’s the equivalent of six World Trade Center

tragedies every year.

You and I need to declare a war on terror -- drinking-driving

terror. One Internet group I found calls for ending the MADDness and

insists that MADD’s political agenda and shady tactics are similar to

those of the Nazi party in pre-war Germany.

Another Internet group implies that MADD is actually responsible

for the current increase in drunk-driving fatalities. Their twisted

thinking is that since the lowering of the legal blood-alcohol

concentration from .10% to .08% forces our police officers to worry

about many more folks, the really drunk drivers -- .10 or higher --

get away. The writers even dare to state that MADD is “hijacking”

traffic safety policy by supporting stricter measures. Then came a

bill -- not yet law in New York -- that really rattled my cage: The

bill’s definition of vehicular murder -- “a Class B felony, whereby a

person recklessly causes the death of another ... while intoxicated

by alcohol or under the influence.”

Vehicular murder. Yes, my nephew and my students were murdered,

pure and simple.

So, what is the message in the (wine) bottle? The American

Automobile Assn. website says it all: “Alcohol-related traffic

accidents are the leading cause of death for American teenagers.”

Now’s the time to stop the terror.

* FLO MARTIN is a Costa Mesa resident and faculty member at Cal

State Fullerton.