Show girls softball games played in girls softball games this past week richville porterville defeated south morgan and devils slide won over north morian morgan fridays schedule will start at 4 p ni with richville porterville meeting peterson and north morgan pitted against south alor morgan an fatal atal traffic accidents in the united states pedestrians too have contributed tri buted to this bad record one out of every four adult pedestrians killed last year had been drinking that intoxication is now one of the leading causes of deaths and injury on the highway is unquestioned control of the drinking driver problem has been co complicated by a number of factors first of all enforcement is hampered because it is difficult to identify drivers who are under the influence of alcohol until some error in driving has been committed or an accident occurs then too lack of public consciousness ness of the seriousness of the problem has delayed the establishment of effective countermeasures law enforcement which does not have substantial public backing has always failed in this country the fact that only a very small percentage of the POP populace ulace in all probability is fully aware of the gravity of the intoxication problem in its relation to motor vehicle accidents has had a pronounced retarding effect upon the he legislator police officer prosecutor judge and jury coupled with these basic problems are others of exceptional importance the absence of needed legislation narrows the field of police investigation and necessarily limits the horizon of judicial decision again loopholes in existing legislation permit the guilty to escape and all too frequently the innocent to suffer such a situation destroys police morale and nurtures antagonism between the police the prosecution and the courts this in turn engenders an unfavorable public attitude many drivers still believe that the term drunken driver applies only to a person who is dead drunk or r almost hopelessly disabled such is is not the case since persons who are very drunk are seldom able to drive at all investigations of accidents involving drinking drivers reveal that the greater menace is is the individual who has drunk enough to have a false feeling of confidence in reality even a little alcohol slows down physical reactions to the extent of making a driver unsafe for example a recent study revealed first that nearly half of the dr drivers alvers involved in personal injury accidents had been drinking to some degree and second that the chances of such persons being concentration of 15 percent or nore more in his blood was 55 times more likely to become involved in a personal injury accident than the non drinking driver correction of this situation rests with public acceptance of the principle that alcohol and gasoline do not mix competent scientific research has shown that human coordination ability to carry on s several ev e ral activities at once and ability to judge distances are affected f for the worse when exposed involved in accidents increased so 7 acidly that the driver with an alto only a relatively small amount of alcohol every driver owes it to himself to his family to the occupants oc of his s car and to the other users of the highway to refrain from driving after drinking |