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KF5JRV > TODAY 10.09.18 12:25l 50 Lines 2791 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 21023_KF5JRV
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Sept 10
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<VE2PKT<N9PMO<NS2B<N0KFQ<KF5JRV
Sent: 180910/1115Z 21023@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA BPQ6.0.16
On this day in 1897, a 25-year-old London taxi driver named George Smith
becomes the first person ever arrested for drunk driving after slamming
his cab into a building. Smith later pled guilty and was fined 25
shillings.
In the United States, the first laws against operating a motor vehicle
while under the influence of alcohol went into effect in New York in
1910. In 1936, Dr. Rolla Harger, a professor of biochemistry and
toxicology, patented the Drunkometer, a balloon-like device into which
people would breathe to determine whether they were inebriated. In 1953,
Robert Borkenstein, a former Indiana state police captain and university
professor who had collaborated with Harger on the Drunkometer, invented
the Breathalyzer. Easier-to-use and more accurate than the Drunkometer,
the Breathalyzer was the first practical device and scientific test
available to police officers to establish whether someone had too much
to drink. A person would blow into the Breathalyzer and it would gauge
the proportion of alcohol vapors in the exhaled breath, which reflected
the level of alcohol in the blood.
Despite the invention of the Breathalyzer and other developments, it was
not until the late 1970s and early 1980s that public awareness about the
dangers of drinking and driving increased and lawmakers and police
officers began to get tougher on offenders. In 1980, a Californian named
Candy Lightner founded Mothers Against Drunk Driving, or MADD, after her
13-year-old daughter Cari was killed by a drunk driver while walking
home from a school carnival. The driver had three previous drunk-driving
convictions and was out on bail from a hit-and-run arrest two days
earlier.Lightner and MADD were instrumental in helping to change
attitudes about drunk driving and pushed for legislation that increased
the penalties for driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs.
MADD also helped get the minimum drinking age raised in many states.
Today, the legal drinking age is 21 everywhere in the United States and
convicted drunk drivers face everything from jail time and fines to the
loss of their driver’s licenses and increased car insurance rates. Some
drunk drivers are ordered to have ignition interlock devices installed
in their vehicles. These devices require a driver to breath into a
sensor attached to the dashboard; the car won’t start if the driver’s
blood alcohol concentration is above a certain limit.
Despite the stiff penalties and public awareness campaigns, drunk
driving remains a serious problem in the United States. In 2005, 16,885
people died in alcohol-related crashes and almost 1.4 million people
were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
73 de Scott KF5JRV
Pmail: KF5JRV@KF5JRV.#NWAR.AR.USA.NA
email: KF5JRV@ICLOUD.COM
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