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April 18, 2008
There are few things worse than the carnage on the roads perpetrated by drunk drivers.
Two recent cover stories in The Providence Journal, complete with photographs, literally make my blood boil.
On April 10, the paper published a story by Paul Davis about 17-year old Sylvia Bogusz who spent months in hospital after allegedly being hit last June by Heidi Harrall who has been indicted by a grand jury. Bogusz was just starting her studies at URI while Harrall was driving with a suspended license and has been in and out of trouble with the police and the courts, according to the story.
The on April 13, the paper published Amanda Milkovits’s story about Tori Lynn Andreozzi, also 17, who was struck by a drunken driver five years ago. Andreozzi was into karate before the accident; now she cannot move most of her body. The woman who hit her, Marilyn Brownell, is four years into a 10-year prison sentence and apparently remembers little about the accident.
Both stories were accompanied by heart-breaking photographs of the young women with their devoted mothers.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) has been doing stellar work since it was established in 1980. But its mission “to stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime and prevent underage drinking” still seems a long way off.
As MADD points out on its Web site, “an estimated 17,602 people died in alcohol-related traffic crashes (in 2006).” Certainly, the little shrines that are tended by the side of roads and highways are mute testimonies to the continued carnage.
What to do? Somehow, having a few drinks and then driving is still tolerated in a way that smoking in public is not. And that’s ironic because alcohol causes far more problems than smoking; apart from drunk driving there is the violence associated with alcohol, especially domestic violence, and its addictive qualities.
I may be extra sensitive when it comes to alcoholics. I had one too many editors who were drunks – funny and charming when things were going well, nasty and vindictive when they weren’t. And totally unpredictable.
And don’t give me that b-s about alcoholism being a disease. It may be, but the first thing is to get these people off the roads and then worry about their health. And if it takes a big stick to get them off the roads, so be it.
- Peter C.T. Elsworth
Posted by Peter C. T. Elsworth 
at 3:20 PM to commentary
| Permalink
I'll bet those drivers' blood alcohol level was way above the ridiculous .08 level. MADD has done nothing because they are barking up the wrong tree.
Posted by: Mart on April 18, 2008 8:01 PM
Please be civil. Vicious comments, personal attacks and profanity won't be published.
