-Caveat Lector-
~~for educational purposes only~~
[Title 17 U.S.C. section 107]
BIG BROTHER'S NEW PROHIBITION
Stephen A. Beck
NONE OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR STATEMENTS ARE TRUE:
But people think they are and that's the real crisis.
"Last year, 24,000 nationwide lost their lives
because of drunk drivers."
- Theresa McNeil, MADD spokeswoman on
WXON-TV
"Drunken drivers are responsible for some
22,000 deaths a year."
- William Raspberry, syndicated Washington
Post columnist
"Drunken drivers cause an annual death toll of
over 25,000."
- U.S. Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist
"Every 23 seconds, someone is killed by a
drunk driver."
- Oprah Winfrey, on her New Years Eve TV
program. (That's over 1,300,000 per year!)
Contrary to the four quotes above, in all the
cities and towns in the entire United States,
drunken driving results in the deaths of about
250 innocent people per year, rather than the
bloated figures hysterically spewed about and
blindly parroted throughout the country. That
250 is six/tenths of one percent from the
41,000 traffic fatalities in 1995. Here's another
percentage: Of all traffic accidents per year in
the entire United States, 16 thousandths of
one percent (.016) are urban, multi-vehicle
fatal accidents involving a drunken driver.
Hard to believe? - It won't be in a moment.
You'll see precisely how the numbers are
grossly bloated - you'll see precisely how the
government has intentionally deceived the
public.
This article does not defend "driving while
blind." It does defend truth and the Bill of
Rights, and both have taken a severe beating
as a result of the seriously twisted "facts."
Every American should be outraged.
What follows is essentially a guest column of
mine that appeared in The Detroit News and
another Detroit area paper, The Daily Tribune.
(30 of the largest papers in the country
declined to print it). Unless noted otherwise, all
! figures are directly from the federal
government's National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) - the source. However,
NHTSA doesn't publicize the raw data - only
the doctored figures. I've changed the
newspaper column to something of an outline
by numbering some ways we've been greatly
deceived about the drinking and driving issue.
The eleven points are dealt with in greater
detail in a book I've written.
It's safe to say that much of the population
wrongly believes that drinking and driving is a
problem of enormous magnitude. That false
perception was accomplished with half-truths,
ludicrous definitions and intentional deception
on the part of NHTSA and groups such as
Mothers Against Drunk Driving - which is
partially funded by NHTSA. Among the many
ways the scope of the problem is greatly
exaggerated can be seen in definitions and
national numbers from NHTSA's own
publications:
1. "Alcohol-related" only means any participant
in a traffic accident had some "measurable
amount" of alcohol, however small.
2. No fault is assigned in such accidents; in
most cases the nondrinker was at fault or road
conditions were the cause. But just as
accidents dubbed "weather-related" blame the
weather, "alcohol-related" automatically, but
erroneously, blames alcohol.
3. Of all traffic accidents nationwide, fatal and
nonfatal, roughly 7% are "alcohol-related."
(6.8%) That 6.8 is a bloated government
figure: Debloated it's only 2 percent.
4. Two-thirds of the alcohol-related deaths are
the drinkers themselves, but that's rarely
mentioned.
5. Over half of all fatal accidents occur in rural
areas where road conditions are a major but
unconsidered factor, however, 80 percent of
the population is urban.
6. The "alcohol-related" figures are taken out
of context: In all the cities and towns in the
entire United States, about 250 innocent
people die per year from alcohol-caused
accidents. That's out of more than 6.6 million
reported accidents involving 11,782,000
drivers in 1995. That's 250 out of more than
123 million estimated incidents of "drunken
driving" per year, according to the federal
Center for Disease Control.
7. Close to 42 percent of fatal accidents in
1992 were single-vehicle, involving only the
driver and willing passengers - no innocent
people. 40% were multi-vehicle; 18% were
nonmotorist (pedestrians, bicyclists, etc.) and
NHTSA shows the vast majority are the
nonmotorist's fault
8. Follow this tricky but MAJOR way we're
deceived (actual 1995 percentages): NHTSA
states that 41 percent of fatal accidents are
alcohol-related. That's 41 drinking drivers out
of every 100 of the accidents. But that 41% is
a phony figure derived from phony math:
That's 41 drinking drivers divided by 100
accidents. That's "apples and oranges" which
scorns grade school arithmetic rules. (4 apples
x 2 oranges = 8 orples!?). Both parts of the
equation must be the same thing. We're not
talking about "antics with semantics" or saying
the same thing two different ways, or making
statistics say what you want them to say.
Statistics are mathematics, and NHTSA's
"math" is obviously fallacious:
Of the 100 accidents, NHTSA states 57 are
single-vehicle (SV) and 43 are multi-vehicle
(MV), so there are 143 given drivers (57 SV
plus 86 MV drivers) of which 41 were allegedly
drinking. So its "29 percent of the drivers were
drinking" (41 of 143), which you never hear,
or the fraudulent phrase NHTSA publicizes: "41
percent of fatal accidents are alcohol-related."
Since some MV accidents involve more than 2
drivers, more than 43 drivers are ignored, so
not only is NHTSA's "41 percent" completely
corrupt, the percentage of drinking drivers is
actually lower than 29. By ignoring 43
nondrinking drivers with its phony math,
NHTSA fraudulently boosts the percentage and
perception of alcohol's role.
9. That 29 percent is artificiall! y amplified
another way: It's composed of 20% SV drivers
and 9% MV drivers, but NHTSA now includes
nonmotorists in the single-vehicle category.
Many of the "20% SV drivers" are actually
drinking pedestrians that stepped into traffic.
In fact, after deducting drinking pedestrians,
the "29%" is less than 25 percent: And we're
not done yet (See the endnote for specific
numbers.)
Returning to the 41%- That phony figure is
responsible for much of the public thinking
"drunk drivers" cause half of all accidents.
NHTSA claims: "41% of fatal crashes are
alcohol-related." What happens is the 41%
gets changed to "nearly half; "fatal" is
dropped; and "alcohol-related" becomes "drunk
drivers." After lazy reporters, headline writers
and 6 o'clock TV news writers are done, the
perception is: "Half of all crashes are caused by
drunk drivers."
For example, here's a quote from a Detroit
News article (10-26-97): "Forty to 50 percent
of all crashes in America involve drinking."
Incidentally, the acting director of the Office of
Public and Consumer Affairs of the U.S.
Department of Transportation, Bill Combs,
wrote a letter to the Detroit News heaping
praise on that article titled "Dying to Drive." He
did not correct any misinformation - instead he
added his own.
10. The deception goes much deeper: NHTSA's
"alcohol-related" figures (such as the phony
"41%) include "drug-related" accidents, with
no indication of that fact. "Drug-related" means
all drugs, from heroin to Valium to aspirin.
Consequently, all "alcohol figures" must be
reduced. (Reduced by at least 35 percent,
according to a University of Michigan study.)
11. Here's more bloating: NHTSA compiles its
numbers from collected state reports then puffs
them up further. For example, NHTSA added
9.3 percent to Michigan's reported
alcohol-related fatalities for the year 1995.
So it boils down to this: In concocting their
drunken driver stew, government statisticians
start with defective definitions, deceitfully
discard nondrinking drivers to create false high
percentages, add drinking pedestrians to the
mix calling them drivers, then for extra spice
they add drugged drivers to their cauldron of
fraudulent figures, then the grossly inflated
subtotal is garnished by adding about 9
percent. The final mess is taken out of context
then spoon-fed to the MADD mothers and the 6
o'clock news ghouls as if it were the Word of
God when it's actually a drastically deformed,
bloated bunch of garbage wrapped in layers of
propaganda being stuffed down our throats
along with precedent-establishing severe laws
that defy logic and the Bill of Rights.
Every year, about 1.5 million drivers are
arrested and charged with a drinking and
driving offense. Stripped of euphemisms and
bluntly stated, this is what's happening all
across America:
To beef up revenues, cities unleash goon
squads with guns to arrest drivers who
allegedly demonstrated the potential of causing
some undefined harm to someone, or
something, sometime in the future at some
unspecified location. The suspect is shackled,
his car is ransacked, he's searched and tossed
in the patrol car, then photographed,
fingerprinted, thrown in a cage, and if he
declined to submit to an alcohol test, he may
be strapped down, have needles plunged into
his body and blood extracted from his veins.
And then, even if that person is found Not
Guilty, he must pay up to $500.00 dollars for
the repugnant experience to cover the "cost of
the arrest." It's tantamount to armed robbery,
kidnapping, and assault and battery, to say the
very least. And the defendant hasn't even been
to a kangaroo court yet - When found guilty of
"per se" alcohol violations, he'll face a slew of
sadistic punishments.
Furthermore, and truly tragic, is the fact that
of the 30,000 suicides per year in the U.S.,
roughly 6,000 of them are drivers in jail under
arrest for a drinking and driving offense.
There's no telling how many suicides happen
after they're released and find their lives in
shambles or ruined due to the unnecessary
arrests and vicious penalties.
NHTSA's numbers are lies but the resultant
brutal laws are very real. Laws such as the
confiscation and sale of cars for first offense
drunk driving, "implied consent" laws, "sobriety
checklanes" and no right to a jury trial if
arrested on federal land (21% of the total and
growing). "Our" government, through the
cabinet position of Secretary of Transportation,
has passionately embraced the Marxist maxim
of "the end justifies the means." One must
wonder what "the end" actually is. In the
meantime, Welcome to Big Brother's New
Prohibition.
END
Endnote: U.S. 1995 population: 265 million.
Total U.S. 1995 fatal accidents: 37,221
resulting in 41,798 fatalities (35,274 driver &
passenger deaths including 2,221
motorcyclists; 6,524 nonmotorists of which
46% were drinking. 17,274 fatalities were
"alcohol-related" (A-R). Total drivers: 56,155.
Urban fatal accidents- 15,608; Rural- 20,712;
901 unknown. Fatal MV=s- 15,976 with 30%
A-R; SV=s- 21,245 with 50% A-R - SV
includes non-motorists. Total A-R, 41.3%
(NHTSA numbers). The fatal accidents in these
endnote NHTSA stats are much less than 1
percent (.56) of all 6,613,000 reported
accidents, so the fraudulent, inflated "41
percent of fatal accidents are alcohol-related"
is less than 1/4 of one percent of all traffic
accidents: (41% of .56 = .23 percent).
Compare that to the misinformation like,
"Forty to 50 percent of all crashes in America
involve drinking." NHTSA's numbers are lies,
but the brutal laws are very real.
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