Drunk Driving / A Call to Action

[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] [Applause] So, two people killed and >> two people and one paralyzed. >> One in the hospital. Have you seen any of the relatives of the the victims? Yes, I have. >> What's it like for you when you have to talk to the parents of a victim? What What happens? >> Crushing. It really hurts when you have to go in and sit down and tell them that your child is dead. A country that can put men on the moon can surely figure out a way to keep drunk drivers off the road permanently. In New York State, a family of nine, wiped out. In Virginia, two teenage joggers crushed by a drunk driver. Writing this story, I find that the public is indignant. They're putting the pressure on for action and they're getting it. What is the problem? Some people drive, some people drink. Most do both. Americans have an ongoing love affair with their cars. [Music] Okay. So, it's Chevy 73 Chevy Vega with a small black 350 with a turbo 350 trans with a 356 gears in the rear. >> Sure. I like slick, shiny, fast, expensive cars. They pamper them, abuse them. But most of all, they use them. The automobile means getting to work and getting away. Alcohol has been around a lot longer than the auto. Whenever people get together for recreation, sports, or rituals, there is often drinking. It's been a custom of long-standing. Alcohol is our only licensed legal drug. If you combine driving and excessive drinking, you should know how alcohol affects your driving. How does alcohol affect you? To find more answers to my questions, I've come to an expert on attitudes and alcohol. Dr. Morris Shapitz, a psychiatrist, has written over 150 articles and a dozen books on alcoholism and health. He has the credentials and he makes a lot of good sense to people. If I were given a magic wand and wanted to really make an impact on drunk driving situation, I would try to get Americans to realize that getting drunk is not part of acceptable social drinking. I think we have to recognize that most people who drink in this country know very little about alcohol and its effects. >> Drunk driving is a worldwide problem. Film Australia uses this animation to show how alcohol affects you. >> If you have food in your stomach, the alcohol may take a little longer to be absorbed. But once it's in your system, there are only a few ways the body can get rid of it. over 90% must be got rid of through your liver, which breaks it down and burns it up. If you've got a healthy liver, it will only get rid of the alcohol contained in about one normalsized drink per hour. That means one glass of beer, one small glass of wine, or one nip of spirits per hour. It can't work any faster. Nothing will speed it up. So when you drink faster than about one glass per hour, alcohol accumulates in your system, pushing your blood alcohol level higher and higher. This blood alcohol level is expressed as a figure, a percentage 0.05%, 008% 10% and so on. >> This figure indicates the percentage of alcohol in your blood. Getting drunk means overdosing with the drug alcohol, being out of control in both judgment and motor behavior. And then when you get into a complicated situation such as driving a car, uh which is difficult at best in our kind of society and you have the loss of control that goes along with having overdosed with a drug that contributes to uh the drunk driving situation. In this film from Houston, Texas, professional race car drivers show how getting drunk affects their driving. First, they did it cold sober. [Music] Then, with the help of the Houston Police Department toxicologist Floyd McDonald, the race drivers began to drink. >> Paul, have a party. Yeah. >> After bringing the race drivers up to a legally drunk and in one case just short of legally drunk level, >> they were asked to go back to their driving on the same obstacle course. >> Here's the effect. [Applause] [Music] Automobiles and alcohol when mixed collide with disastrous results. What are the results of drunk driving? More than 25,000 people are killed each year in alcoholrelated accidents. 250,000 people have died in the last 10 years. Over 700,000 people are injured in these crashes each year. It is estimated that one out of every two Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related accident in his lifetime. [Music] This loss of life is like an epidemic and a selective one at that. The victims are most often the young. These young people were the victims of drunk drivers. The death rate in the United States has been decreasing for every age group but one young Americans between the ages of 16 and 24. The death rate for that age group has been increasing for the past 20 years and the main reason alcoholrelated automobile crashes. What are the answers? The present campaign against drunk driving is different. Its aim is to make drinking and driving socially unacceptable. The first push came from the parents and families of victims killed by drunk drivers. This is a national movement. It involves more groups, more people than ever before. An event like the International Symposium on Alcohol and Driving in Washington DC is an example of the high level of interest. Citizens and experts are looking for something that works, a long-term and lasting solution to the problem of drunk driving. And that's the very purpose of this symposium, bringing together people from all across the United States and the world. Victims of drunk drivers, we learned, have organized, led by people like Candy Lightner here. >> My daughter was killed by an alcoholic. I traveled a great deal in Europe and I live there and there was a difference in public attitude and I do believe we can bring that difference about in this country. >> What I hope that will also come out of the symposium is a willingness to think very carefully about what's going to work. >> I've listened to your remarks very attentively this morning. I'm very impressed with your own feeling and agree that uh that severe penalties are often counterproductive. But what I see as a ray of hope in all this is administrative revocation of driver's licenses. >> We know that first of all people are afraid of losing their license whether or not they violate that restriction. And secondly, when they do violate the restriction, they tend to drive very safely. And finally, that the restriction seems to have some kind of rehabilitative effect in that when people get their licenses back once again, they drive more safely than they did previously. One group are the young ones, the risk-takers. They drink and drive. They drive without a safety belt. They drive too fast. They drive during the night. They are very much over represented in the fatalities. >> Believe that the age of of 21 is is a very good one to set based on the statistics I've heard. It would certainly help to reduce the number of deaths of young people. In a Tascadero, California, an individual had a drunken driver had killed a 15year-old girl and he had gotten 270 days in jail. That same day's press in St. Louis Abyspo showed a not a career criminal, a a bluecollar unemployed on hard times individual who had over a period of a couple of months written $430 in bad checks. His sentence was $270 days in jail. In a Tascadero, killing a 15year-old girl and in St. Louis Aispo writing $430 in bad checks. The punishments were identical. 270 days in jail. >> For some reason in this country, judges on all levels have lost touch on a range of criminal justice issues. And I think this is a classic issue and I think it's incumbent upon us to make sure they no longer lose touch. >> What's next? We need a strong broad-based citizen action group to keep the issue alive and visible. That's the only kind of effort that will hold the attention of the media and educate the public. >> You need to take what we have, the community action groups, and somehow set them up so they're permanent. So they're ongoing. So with or without the media, you have that constituency that can carry on the public education, the school education, the court monitoring, whatever it is you need. Some of the ideas that I have on reshaping public attitude, because let's face it, that's where it's at. That is exactly what the bottom line is. What it really amounts to is what you think of drinking and driving. >> We have created this morality. It's wrong to mix alcohol and traffic for most sweets. >> An important part of the SAD program is the contract which is signed with the parent and the student which says child I promise to pick you up at any time at night if you have had too much to drink or a friend who is driving you've had too much to drink. and your parent signs it and then you sign it >> and it binds parents and students together this contract. >> I think that action is required in respect of drinking across the board. What there wants is an action that will change the attitude of the public from irresponsible drinking as it affects driving as it affects crime into one of responsible drinking. And I think that uh this requires a long process of changing attitude of of the general public. >> Well, one thing that I think a lot of people who have not been involved in politics or in grassroots efforts uh really really don't understand is that it doesn't take a lot of people in our open free society uh to change things. A relatively small group, the people who were at this conference can have an enormous impact. It is amazing to see what a few dedicated people can do to make a positive change in our society. It is going to take years to solve this problem. But I have no doubt that working together, those of you here today and others across this country are going to begin to win the battle. >> Drunk driving can be stopped. You need tough laws, strict enforcement, and people to speak out. >> Take away driver's licenses. >> Raise the drinking age. >> The three years that >> apply the laws fairly. >> Support long-term education to change public attitudes. >> Sign that contract. >> Here's how you can help. Call this toll-free number for information on what you can do to stop drunk driving. [Music]