{"id":446,"date":"2011-12-24T18:08:03","date_gmt":"2011-12-25T01:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=446"},"modified":"2011-12-24T18:08:03","modified_gmt":"2011-12-25T01:08:03","slug":"lets-punish-drunk-drivers-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=446","title":{"rendered":"Let’s Punish Drunk Drivers Now"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/a>It was the same sad story – portrayed by the government’s just – released report on traffic fatalities for 1980. A total of 51,077 deaths on the nation’s streets and highways, matching or surpassing the 50,000-plus American fatalities in the Vietnam War. Significant, the government said, was a dramatic increase in the problem of drunk driving over the past few years, with more than half of the fatally – injured drivers tested found to be legally drunk. This doesn’t include passengers. For a number of years it’s been rule-ofthumb that about half of the highway deaths occur in alcohol – related accidents. Other key factors in the road carnage included: – Failure to use seat belts or other restraints. In fatal accidents where the driver was alone, only 3 percent were lmovm to be using belts. – A mix of more smaller cars with larger trucks. More than 13,000 persons almost half of all passenger car fatalities – occupied compact or subcompact cars. – Deteriorating roads. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said nearly 70 percent of all fatal accidents occurred on state, county and local highways, generally not as well- maintained as the interstate system. Interstate driving accounted for only 9 percent of fatal accidents although comprising more than 19 percent of the travel. The report said states have stepped up testing of drivers for blood alcohol levels because of a jump in alcohol abuse on the highways. Alcohol safety programs are one of the N1-1TSA’S top priorities. The highway safety effort should extend nationwide and involve the public. Effective leadership is vital. A current congressional initiative calls for presidential appointment of a blue ribbon commission to research the drunk driving problem and solutions. This is good, but why not expand the effort to encompass the entire field of traffic safety with a national campaign to reduce the highway slaughter? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the same sad story – portrayed by the government’s just – released report on traffic fatalities for 1980. A total of 51,077 deaths on the nation’s streets and highways, matching or surpassing the 50,000-plus American fatalities in the Vietnam War. Significant, the government said, was a dramatic increase in the problem of drunk… Continue reading Let’s Punish Drunk Drivers Now<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=446"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/446\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=446"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=446"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=446"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}