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Griffin Daily News
New programs trying
to curb drunk driving
By EDWARD NEILAN
Copley News Service
WASHINGTON - Fresh at
tention is being paid to the old
saying "'Die most important
component in an automobile is
the nut behind the wheel."
Especially when the nut — or
driver — is drunk.
Consumer champions have
forced the auto industry to
scramble to lower exhaust
emissions that cause pollu
tants, improve tire safety stan
dards, strengthen bumpers and
make seat belts mandatory.
Now the industry is fighting
back with pressure to make the
man behind the wheel behave
better.
The drunk driver on Amer
ican highways is a national dis
aster and a national disgrace.
Records culled from Podunk
to Pittsburg, from Blackwell’s
Corners to Boston show that
there are six to seven million
drivers in the country who have
a severe drinking problem.
An even more unimpeach
able statistic: those drunks
were involved in more than
20,000 of the 55,000 highway
deaths in 1970.
And they're running ahead of
that performance after the first
six months of 1971.
Repeated arrests, accidents,
license suspensions and other
penalties have failed to keep
drunks off the road.
Police departments, courts
and state motor vehicle agen
cies so far have failed — obvi
ously — to keep drunk drivers
off the road.
Now, however, the drunk
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28
Wednesday, August 11,1971
driver is going to come under
increased surveillance and be
come a prime target of federal
and state governments and the
nation’s automobile manufac
turers.
The National Highway Safety
Transportation Agency, which
during the last decade has
stressed safer vehicles and is
now beginning to see a small
reduction in fatalities because
of its effort, will begin turning
its attention to the driver of the
vehicle.
The main focus of concern
will be the driver with a severe
drinking problem.
Detroit's auto makers have
been saying for years that the
man behind the wheel bears a
greater share of the blame for
accidents than 'lemon” auto
mobiles or worn parts in ve
hicles or poor highway condi
tions.
But during the last few years
the campaign to make safer
cars has captured the public
imagination.
Now, officials of the highway
agency say, the campaign to
improve auto structural and
operating safety has started
rolling so well that funds and
manpower can be shifted to the
problem of the unsafe driver.
A further factor is that only
recently have several volumi
nous studies on habits and re
actions of drunk drivers been
completed. This will allow pro
grams to go beyond the “if you
drive, don’t drink" slogan
stage.
During the next three years,
the federal agency will spend
nearly $l3O million to test ways
of preventing drunken drivers
from getting on the road.
The European model is being
studied carefully. Over there,
drunk drivers get rapped very
hard on a first conviction.
In Finland, for example, any
one caught driving while drunk
must spend two weeks at a
labor camp. Three-time losers
may never get behind a wheel
again.
The U.S. approach will begin
with less severe measures.
Part of the new program will
be testing of devices on cars
that will make it impossible for
intoxicated drivers to start or
drive their cars.
Upgrading law enforcement
will be another vital part of the
plan. Another will be efforts to
get the courts to force con
victed drunk drivers to seek re
habilitation.
Skeptics claim the challenge
of keeping drunks from behind
the wheel is monumental. One
federal official likened it in
toughness to “ending the war in
Vietnam."
There is determination, how
ever, that rehabilitation of
drunk drivers, rather than
sloganeering, will help lessen
the problem.
Doug Toms, director of the
federal safety agency’s new
program, said, “The premise
of our program is that these are
sick people who need to be re
habilitated.”
Research by the agency, he
said, revealed that of the more
than 20,000 traffic deaths at
tributed to drunken drivers in
1970, about one-third were
social drinkers (“All I had
were a few beers, officer”)
while two-thirds were caused
by problem drinkers.
Toms said the agency defines
“problem drinkers” as any
driver whose blood alcohol
level at the time of an accident
is .10 or more.
One recent survey showed
DR. LAWRENCE E. LAMB
Sitting Can Make
Seat Get Broader
By Lawrence Lamb, M.I).
Dear Dr. Lamb—To end a
lot of arguing in the family
1 would like your answer be
cause I know I’m right
though my family says I'm
not. Sitting on one’s seat all
the time doesn't make it
broader does it?
Dear Reader—lt can be a
contributing factor. A per
son who sits all the time and
gets no exercise is apt to be
building up fat deposits
around the body. The seat
is one of nature's favorite
storage locations for fat.
Then there is the question
of muscle tone, poor muscle
tone does increase dimen
sions — but more noticeably
in the abdomen. Many peo
ple lose muscle tone in the
abdomen from jobs or habits
that involve sitting and very
little use of the stomach
muscles.
Location of fat deposits on
the body is also related to
inherited characteristics.
One native tribe in Africa
has a tribal characteristic
ot a very large seat, which is
iat. Incidentally in their cul
ture that is a sign of true
beauty.
Fat serves a useful func
tion for some people. It acts
as a pillow to protect the
body from external pressure.
A person who has recently
lost a lot of fat from their
seat has essentially lost his
pillow and he will notice the
pressure of his pelvic bones
when he sits, at least until
he regains enough muscle
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showed that 60 per cent of the
drivers with a severe drinking
continued to drive after their li
censes had been suspended.
Why are police and the courts
unable to enforce control of
drunken drivers?
Police officials say that in
creasing pressures in the last
10 years to deal with violent
crimes has caused a shift in
manpower out of traffic opera
tions.
The Detroit Police Depart
ment, for example, shifted 100
men from traffic enforcement
in 1968 to regular police work.
The loss to the traffic force has
not been replaced.
Police motivation, experts
say, is also affected by public
apathy. Police officers are also
often disappointed by the lack
of action taken by the courts
after an arrest has been made
for drunken driving.
In many states, a drunken
driver, using the services of a
sharp lawyer, can plead guilty
to the lesser charge of reckless
driving on the grounds that he
will lose his job if he loses his
driving license.
Thus the offender is very
often a free man after paying a
nominal fine.
Police officials complain that
there is an increasing tendency
on the part of judges to wink at
drunken driving cases. This is
due partly to the heavy case
loads and also to the fact that
depriving a suburbanite of his
driver's license renders him
virtually immobile. That, say
some judges, only aggravates
the problem of the heavy
drinker.
The emphasis of the federal
program over the next three
years will be to find ways of
keeping convicted drunks off
the road and getting them into
rehabilitation programs as
speedily as possible.
tone to be comfortable
Dear Dr. Lamb — Would
you please clarify the "cop
per bracelet” for arthritis
So many of my friends vow
it’s curing them and I’m a
nonbeliever. Is it or isn’t it
of value?
Dear Reader—Faith is a
wonderful thing. There is
even something magic in the
healing power of the physi
cian just because his patients
believe in him. Cripples have
walked from listening to in
spirational music. Pink
water has relieved a lot of
people of a genuine feeling of
discomfort. I never discount
the psychic and hence health
ful benefits a patient can get
from faith — even in coppei
bracelets.
Other than the psychic
benefits — which can fav
orably affect the course of a
disease — there is no evi
dence that copper bracelets
do anything else to cure or
prevent arthritis. Arthritis
has a tendency for unex
plained remissions and
sometimes it doesn’t return
—in spite of medicine, not
because of it.
I don't think copper brace
lets do any harm. I am only
concerned that someone who
should be under the care of
a rheumatologist (specialist
in arthritis I may not be get
ting the care they should be
getting in prevention of de
formities and crippling that
can be minimized or in some
cases prevented That is the
only real danger.
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.)
- —-MX L v S; -/ wl
DISNEY WORLD’S SLEEK MONORAIL will whisk visitors through the heart of the complex—including still
building 14-story resort hotel, shown in artist's sketch.
Disney World: A Pre-Opening Success
(Last of Three Articles.)
By DICK KLEINER
ORLANDO. FIa.—(NEA)
—At the junction of Inter
state 4 and State Road 535,
about 15 miles southeast of
here, there is a building
called the Walt Disney
World Preview Center.
Even though it is unadver
tised, more than one million
people have already found it,
and viewed the model of the
huge amusement park-and
resort complex which will
open in October, and
watched a brief movie ex
plaining the park.
In the lobby, there is a
souvenir stand which does a
rushing business. It sells the
usual .run of T-shirts and
playing cards and necklaces,
plus Disney World bumper
stickers (for 25 cents). The
owner of nearby Cypress
Gardens came by one day
and went away depressed—
he’d been giving bumper
stickers away, but then no
body has the merchandising
magic of the Disney organ
ization.
A few miles down the road
is the Disney World employ
ment office. Personnel direc
tor James Passilia—one of
200 executives transplanted
from Disneyland in Califor-
In the News
■k i
~ Jjjlw
. ...a...
CHIEF troubleshooter for
the State Department in
the Mideast. Joseph Sisco
in repeated visits to Cairo
and Jerusalem has sought
to bring Egyptians and
Israelis into agreement on
a formula for reopening the
Suez Canal.
nia—says that in its first
month of operation it proc
essed 20,000 applications.
This is somewhat below the
anticipated figure, but Pas
silia says the quality of the
average applicant has been
better than expected, so
they’re happy.
In hiring—they have to
have nearly 6.000 employes
by opening day—they are
giving preference to Florida
residents. But, in some
areas, they are having to go
outside. Disney operations
always stress that they
"cast” their employes, and
they’re having trouble cast
ing people to man the Poly
nesian-style hotel. There are
very few South Pacific types
in central Florida, so they
are looking elsewhere for
them.
On down the road is the
site itself, where two new
cities—Lake Buena Vista
and Bay Lake—have been
created, and where the park
itself is under construction
More than 7,000 men are
working a 10-hour day to
have it finished by Oct. 1.
In one huge building, the
Disney World transportation
system is coming to life. On
the ground floor, workers
are transforming three loco
motives bought in Yucatan,
/di
> // $ -A u
nJF —
/ at w i z /■»/
i
'I
Beautiful Clothes for Active People
POLARIS 11. ACRILAN” PILE IN A CLASSIC
Q Whjte S( . ag
Mexico, and dating from the
1920 s into the sparkling en
gines which will pull trains
around the park.
Upstairs, the monorails—
sleek and new—are being
assembled.
There is even a shipyard,
where the various types of
boats which will cruise the
natural lake and man-made
lagoons are being put to
gether. Most of them were
built in a St. Petersburg
shipyard, then trucked here
in pieces to be put together.
Other workmen are rush
ing a campground to com
pletion. This will be able to
handle 234 campers and
trailers in a beautiful natu
lal site Nearby, men are
carving a nature trail into
the swamp: you can walk
along and view monster cy
press trees, estimated at up
to 2,000 years old.
In another area, workers
are putting the finishing
touches on two par-72, 18-
hole golf courses, one
planted with magnolias, the
other with palms. On one,
next December, the $150,000
PGA-sponsored Walt Disney
World Open will be played.
Arnold Palmer is one of sev
eral top pros who have al
ready said he'd be there—
and he’d be bringing his
family.
The acceptance of this t
largest of recreation areas
has been immediate. More
than 300 conventions, into
1978, have been booked.
Cruise ships from New York ’
have altered their routes, so
they’ll stop at nearby Port
Canaveral and let their pas
sengers see the park. «,
A new ST O L-p or t is
planned and two small air
lines—Pioneer and Execu
tive-will begin scheduled
service to various cities.
Eastern Air Lines, which
flies into Orlando from the
big Eastern cities, has ap
plied to the CAB for reduced
family fare packages.
All of this is only the first ,
phase of Disney’s plans for , <
the site. In the future there
will be more—several more
hotels, more golf courses,
more attractions at the park
itself, and Walt Disney’s
dream, EPCOT, the Experi
mental Prototype Commu
nity of Tomorrow.
“Walt said,” says Joseph
Fowler, the head of con
struction, “that he needed
28,000 acres here to keep his
creative people busy for the
next 50 years. 1
“The old man is up there, ’
looking over our shoulders.” .
(NEWSPAPER ENTERPRISE ASSN.)