Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-11-23
Drunk or Reckless
Drivers Kill One
Out of Three Killed

One person in every three killed in
Massachusetts, by automobiles in 1922
was slain by a drunken or reckless
driver. In Rhode Island one person
In every six killed by autos during
1922 was killed by either q drunken
or reckless driver. Maine, New
Hampshire, Vermont and Connecticut
nave proportionate records,
What Is the answer to this serious
condition, asks the A. L. A.
There are Just two positions that
may be taken in regard to drunken
drivers, either o drunken driver is
dangerous on our highways or he Ia
not Either the record of killings
laid at his door means something, or
it does not. Either it is time for
everyone to act courageously and
without favor, or it Is not, and fin-
ally, either the judges Of all our
states must take stand and ap-
prove tho menace existing toward all
citizens caused by drunken drivers on
our highways, or show their dlsap-
prevail by just and severe jail SEN
fences. No halfway measure will
do. It must be met by two listed re-
sistance. .,tla..4t 81
The drunken automobile driver
tried and convicted in court seems, at
present, to be immune to jail SEN
tence. The average Jail sentence
given drunken auto drivers during
1922 was about Is days and less than
one per cent. served Jail sentences.
Compare these sentences with the
sentence given a man convicted of
stealing car. In Ohio, for in
stance, a first offense lands such a
thief in Jail for from one to 20 years,
and If he Is not satisfied and tries 1t
0Oain hn rnfS from five n On
Just why the convicted drunken
driver of o motor vehicle with his
black record escapes with q fine or
in rare instances, a few Gays in jail,
Is something the public SHOULD know.
With the bootlegger who operates
a rum-laden car the court deals Sc
vereiy; but why, the difference in
punishment, when the operator and
not the car carries this burden?
Somewhere, something is wrong, as
serts the A. l.. A. Do our courts err,
or is the law itself at fault?
For the past three years Connec-
ticut has averaged 10 deaths per
month from oil causes. Fourteen
hundred drunken drivers have been
arrested and 1854 convicted during
this period and 1913 have paid fines.
while the small balance lave served
short Jail sentences. The average OF
deaths has remained the same. Fines
are ineffective.
Out of 20 cases tried in the su-
perior court of Cumberland county,
Maine in 1923. nine served short Jail
sentences with fines; six We're mol
pressed and four placed on probation;
During July and August 1928, IL
cases were tried in the Sixth District
Court at Providence, II. /. Two got
10 days in jail and 10 were fined.
Thus the court records tel the story
of why the drunken driver remains
at large.
No thinking person is bold enough
to claim a drunken man at the wheel
of a moving car is not the uttermost
element of automobiling danger that
it is possible to imagine. and yet
Judging solely by the manner in
which our courts dispose of most OF
these cases the impression goes
forth that our judges are almost OF
one mind as to the punishment this
class of drivers deserves.
If your child goes upon the street
the risk he takes is appalling.