The New York Times explains the dangers children face from drunk drivers.
Matther L. Wald writes (excerpt):
The report, “Every Child Deserves a Designated Driver,” which uses a government definition of children as those 14 and under, contradicts the stereotype of the lone drunken driver smashing into a car in which a family is riding or running down children playing in the street. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the vast majority of children killed by drunken drivers are in vehicles, and not pedestrians or cyclists.
And of the 1,985 children who died from 1997 to 2001 as passengers in alcohol-related accidents, 1,349, or 68 percent, were in cars whose drivers had measurable levels of alcohol, government statistics show. Within that group, about three-quarters, a total of 1,016 children, were in cars whose driver’s blood alcohol level was over 0.08 — that is, 0.08 gram of alcohol per deciliter of blood — the national standard for being under the influence.
Experts say the danger to children transcends the increased risk that a driver who has been drinking will simply have an accident. Ralph W. Hingson, director of epidemiology and prevention research at the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, one of the National Institutes of Health, said the higher the blood alcohol, the less likely the driver would be wearing a seat belt. And if the driver is not buckled, Dr. Hingson said, child passengers are less likely to be using an infant seat, a booster seat or a seat belt.
ok!!!!