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A Deadly Mixture

“A GRAVE crisis,” declared U.S. president Bush. An “appalling state of affairs,” stated The Star of South Africa. “An epidemic,” reported U.S.News & World Report. “A scourge on society,” said a concerned citizen.

Are they talking about the dreadful AIDS virus? No, but about another kind of plague that in most countries is at present claiming more victims than AIDS. What is it? The result of a deadly mixture: drinking and driving.

Worldwide, about 300,000 people are killed in vehicle accidents each year. Of the millions who are injured, tens of thousands are maimed for life. The financial cost is many thousands of millions of dollars annually. Alcohol-related accidents account for a large part of that.

In the decade ending in 1990, some 100,000 people died from AIDS in the United States. But in the same ten years, about 250,000 have been killed in alcohol-related vehicle accidents. AIDS more often directly affects the sexually promiscuous and the intravenous drug user. But the alcohol-impaired driver may kill not only the abuser but the innocent bystander as well.

The mixing of drinking and driving often inflicts a most violent kind of death upon unsuspecting victims, and it rips apart families. It bereaves parents of their children, children of their parents, spouses of their mates.

Attempts to Stem the Tide

Many efforts are being made to stem this tidal wave of devastation. In the United States, public awareness campaigns have been launched by grass-roots organizations such as RID (Remove Intoxicated Drivers) and MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers). There are Stop-DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) programs. Similar organizations exist in other countries. These help victims with their rights and promote legal reforms.

Law-enforcement agencies are stepping up efforts to arrest impaired drivers, using such things as sobriety checkpoints. Various laws have been enacted to make those who serve alcoholic beverages liable for prosecution. Even billboards are being used to remind drivers of existing laws.

Death Toll Continues to Rise

In spite of all these efforts, the drunk-driving death toll throughout the world continues to rise. In Brazil one person is killed every 21 minutes​—some 25,000 each year—​in alcohol-related accidents. That is about 50 percent of all traffic fatalities there. In England and Germany, about one fifth of all traffic fatalities are said to be alcohol related. In Mexico, according to several sources, 80 percent of the 50,000 traffic fatalities are due to ‘human error, basically caused by drunk driving,’ reports Mexico City’s El Universal.

It is estimated that over 25 percent of traffic casualties in South Africa involve alcohol. In the United States in an average year, alcohol-related accidents result in some 650,000 injuries, of which about 40,000 are serious; over 23,000 people are killed​—about half of the total traffic fatalities.

Out of desperation in attempting to curb the alcohol-impaired driver, a DWI Victims Panel was organized in Washington State, U.S.A. It has become part of the judicial process in sentencing those convicted of driving while under the influence of an intoxicant. The program is now employed in many parts of that country. Its purpose is to bring offenders face-to-face with the tragic consequences of their irresponsible drinking. The guilty offenders are sentenced by the courts to listen to the victims and their family members and be made aware of the awful price that has been paid. Awake! was invited to take a close look at one such presentation.

[Picture Credit Line on page 4]

Dominic D. Massita, Sr./​Accident Legal Photo Service of New York