SOUNDING OFF

Gay Wassall-Kelly and Bill Kelly

We suspect there were many more valuable letters that could have been

featured this week (“Letter of the Week: Pilot should admit real reason

for publishing DUIs,” Feb. 4), but since you found it necessary to

present this one, here goes: We applaud the Daily Pilot for listing the

names of DUI arrests!

Gary E. Dries, do you know what lifelong pain a drunk driver can cause

a family? I wonder if you realize how it touches a family when their son

or daughter is killed or involved in an injury accident caused by a drunk

driver?

Well, we do. Our 28-year-old son, Matt, made the bad choice of getting

into a car with a drunk driver when he was 19. He sustained a traumatic

head injury by being ejected out of the speeding car and was in a coma

for three months. He spent another five months in the hospital for

intensive rehabilitation and continues today struggling with his

paralysis and cognitive defects.

He is reminded each day of how stupid his friend was to get behind the

wheel. Matt will have lifelong disabilities. His friend sustained a

broken leg.

We wish drunk drivers were required to be on a list just like sex

offenders. Do you realize how much mayhem a drunk driver is responsible

for in a community? According to statistics fromMothers Against Drunk

Drivers, a drunk driver kills one person every 32 seconds -- 17,126 in

1996. About 1,058,990 are injured in alcohol-related crashes. About two

of every five Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash!

In the past decade, four times the amount of Americans died in

drunk-driving crashes as were killed in the Vietnam War. Drunk driving is

the nation’s most frequently committed violent crime.

Guess what state leads the nation in traffic fatalities -- good old

California. Of all fatal crashes during the week, 30% are

alcohol-related, 54% on the weekends. Male drivers involved in fatal

crashes were nearly twice as likely to have been intoxicated than were

females. Men are four times more likely than women to drive after

drinking.

Now, maybe you can understand why we commend the Daily Pilot for

publishing the names of DUIs in our community. We think drunk drivers

should be required to bear bumper stickers on their cars -- “Arrested for

DUI” -- warning of the dangers of having them on the road.

Our family has no sympathy for drunk drivers, and we don’t comprehend

your gripe. Thanks again, Daily Pilot, for your judicious reporting.

* GAY WASSALL-KELLY and BILL KELLY are residents of Balboa Island.

Wassall-Kelly is the editor of a Balboa newspaper and is active in the

community. Kelly is an industrial engineer. Their views on movies

sometimes appear in Reel Critics.