| |
N0KFQ > TODAY 10.09.14 16:35l 59 Lines 2854 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 35620_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - Sep 10
Path: IW8PGT<IZ3LSV<I0OJJ<N6RME<N0KFQ
Sent: 140910/1430Z 35620@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.60
Sep 10, 1897:
First drunk driving arrest
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, K.O. and Billie...
...."on the road again".
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
Using Outpost Ver 2.8.0 c41
Read previous mail | Read next mail
| |
