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Show Page HILL TOP TIMES 18 October 1. 1976 J L Methods for making such estimates have been devised by the Alcohol Safety Action Project. A person of Prefontaine's slight build would have his "driving impaired" if his BAL was in the range of .05 to .07 per cent. He would have reached that low level of intoxication by drinking either three shots of liquor or three glasses of beer within a period. But to reach his blood alcohol of .16 per cent he would have had to drink about 3 times more than that. ur for Drinking Drivers Those convicted under the RIDE program were sentenced to six days in jail, had their licenses suspended for 60 days and were placed on probation for six months to one year. As a result of the program, in 1973 and 1974, that county's per capita death rate was reduced to 16.6 per cent less than half the death rate in the rest of the state. Yet, despite overwhelming evidence that heavy sentencing of all drinking drivers does, in fact, change their behavior and keep them from getting behind the wheel after drinking, state legislatures steadfastly refuse to consider laws with automatic jail penalties. Nationwide, judges still levy fines and suspend licenses even when the law provides them with the Just after midnight, his MGB roadster headed into a gentle curve. The street was a quiet residential one in Portland, Ore. Only a light touch on the steering wheel would guide the open car around the bend. Instead, the car crossed the road, jumped the curb, crashed into a stone embankment and flipped over. Then all was silent. Another ordinary car accident. But pinned beneath the shattered steel was no ordinary young man. Dead at 24 was Steve Prefontaine, who held almost every track record. He was the shining hope of the U.S. Olympic Track and Field Team to make a gold medal at the '76 Olympics. He was missed at Montreal. Though his death certificate noted "traumatic asphyxiation" as the cause of death, the National Safety Council will list that fatality of May 30, 1975, as having been caused by "driving while under the influence of liquor." The police recluctantly revealed to the press that Prefontaine's blood alcohol level (BAL) at the time of the accident was .16 per cent, far exlong-distan- ce ceeding the level allowed by Oregon law for the safe operation of a motor vehicle. If Prefontaine was no average American, so far superior to most of us in talent, physical fitness and drive for perfection, his reaction on that day of stress was unfortunately typical. To relax, to celebrate a track meet with Finnish track stars, he drank and then, making a fatal error, decided to drive home. . For part of the evening he was with one of his closest friends who refused to estimate how much Prefontaine had drunk that night, saying only, "It was enough to affect his driving." From an article by Belle Canon in The Washington Post, July 31. Reprinted by permission. 1976. breathalyzer to measure alcohol levels, and with video tape equipment to record the driver's words and actions. When juries were exposed to the evidence of actually seeing the defendant staggering and hearing his slurred, fuzzy speech at the time of his arrest, the conviction rate jumped to 80 per cent. Elsewhere in the state, it was often less than 50 per cent. The tragic loss of one Prefontaine may point up more glaringly than the tens of thousands of others who will be killed again this year, the failure of our society to face squarely the problem. Neither Federal nor state governments have effectively persuaded the driving public that responsible driving after drinking is not possible. The legal profession and social workers in the United States are still debating the issue, "Does jail rehabilitate?" Other countries, particularly in Scandinavia, have proved that the mere threat of jail deters drinkers from driving. Their laws have not resulted in filling the jails. Their laws have simply convinced the public that the risk of driving after drinking is too great. A few limited trial project in the U.S. have met with startling success. In Prefontaine's home state of Oregon, one county launched an all-oeffort to get drunks off the road under a pilot project called "Reduction in Deaths Through Enforcement" (RIDE). The project coordinator enlisted the cooperative efforts of all the county's police agencies, district attorneys and judges to test the effectiveness of using maximum penalities allowed by law, rather than the minimum, for driving under the influence of liquor. To aid jury convictions, Oregon's Traffic Safety Commisioner supplied every county patrol car with a ut "Steve Prefontaine was no alcoholic. He could not have maintained the physical stamina to win at long-distanc- running if he had been. " e option of jail. Attorneys specialize in convincing the court of their drunk clients' special circumstances that should excuse them of fault. With such permissiveness, drivers continue to believe themselves capable of driving after four or more drinks within an hour. They have been proved wrong by countless studies as well as the silent testimony of over a million victims. Steve Prefontaine was no alcoholic. He could not have maintained the physical stamina to win at longdistance running if he had been. He was unusually bright, and evidence suggests that he was a citizen. Had the law been precise and the penalties certain and irrevocable, it is more than probable that he would have called a cab or found a friend to drive him home. 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