Melanie's Story

A first-hand story from the grandfather of 13-year-old victim Melanie Powell
Memories of Melanie: A photo slideshow

STORIES

State ranked among the worst in nation
Quincy judge was among first to take a hard line

GRAPHICS

PART 1
TIMELINE: How Massachusetts drunken driving law has changed
Alcohol's causes and effects
How local and state courts treat repeat drunken drivers
Busiest courts in state for drunken driving arraignments

PART 2
The cost of drunken driving

PART 3
Massachusetts fails compared with other states
Death toll from drunken driving

This web site uses elements designed in Macromedia Flash.
If you cannot view some of the graphics,
you may need this free browser plug-in. Click here to download it.

Editorial

Soft on drunken drivers

Our society proclaims in many ways that drunken driving won't be tolerated. But the facts show otherwise, as a series in The Patriot Ledger this week documented.

If we in Massachusetts are to treat drunken driving as the serious social problem it is, we must begin to look at the consequences.

The state has a social host responsibility law, local communities mount anti-drinking campaigns during prom season, bumper stickers remind us "Friends don't let friends drive drunk." But on the roads and in the courts Massachusetts has one of the worst records in the country for dealing seriously - harshly - with the carnage of drunken driving.

It's hard to pinpoint why, but cultural mores are a partial explanation. Drinking alcohol is part of family and social life for the majority of Americans. Wine with dinner, cocktails before or after, champagne for special occasions - drinking is an accepted part of life. That helps explain why societal rage against drugs and smoking does not extend to drinking and driving. People are more likely to gasp at the offending cigarette smoker at a house party than at a man or woman heading for the car after consuming a few drinks.

Education efforts are not doing the job. Young people are still killing themselves and each other by drinking and driving. But the biggest problem is repeat offenders, men and women who refuse to stop themselves - or cannot control themselves - even after they've been arrested once, twice, three times and more for drunken driving.

The cost of this scourge is overwhelming. Consider that more people die from drunken driving in America each year - 17,000 - than are murdered. The cost of drunken-driving accidents in Massachusetts is estimated at $1.8 billion. Yet the public is far more concentrated on violent death resulting from murder than it is on drunken-driving casualties.

Murderers evoke no sympathy, but drunken-drivers do. Because drinking is so prevalent, some say, "There, but for the grace of God, go I."

In this realm, sympathy is misplaced. If we in Massachusetts are to treat drunken driving as the serious social problem it is, we must begin to look at the consequences - the innocent lives lost: young parents wiped out, productive men and women maimed and unable to fulfill themselves or their responsibilities, children dead before they have begun to live.

Massachusetts needs a serious attitude change about how to deal with drunken drivers.

(Tomorrow: What the Legislature and courts need to do.)