Revive M.A.D.D. Vigils in Light of Drunk Driving Tragedies

Each week, on the way to church, I walk past the Mothers Against Drunk Driving office in the Historic Courthouse. Not a passage goes by that I do not recall those candlelight vigils that once took place on the steps of the courthouse next door.
Held at the outset of the Christmas holiday season, they were a solemn reminder of who suffers, and who had sustained the loss of loved ones during the past 12 months.
One of the regulars at the event was former County Prosecutor Stephen Moore, who had lost his brother to a drunk driver. Police officers, including State Police troopers added importance to the solemn event.
Then, one year, the judge in charge of this vicinage decided that, to allow M.A.D.D. vigils would prejudice an unbiased court, and give the appearance of favoring those who oppose driving drunk.
It was one of many court decisions I find reprehensible, but the damage was done. The chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving wasn’t about the challenge the judge, especially since they got an office in the old courthouse.
Since then, the ribbons that once were tied around car radio antennae are stowed in box somewhere. The candles are unburned. And the drunk drivers, it seems, proliferate.
This column is being written a day after 20-year-old Craig Lozier of Court House was killed on Route 47 while riding his motorcycle. The person, who caused the accident by entering Lozier’s northbound lane, was 18 years old, and charged with driving while intoxicated and other offenses.
His death is the fourth this summer of a motorcycle or moped rider, and the third in which the driver of the other vehicle was charged with driving while intoxicated.
The unbiased court will have its work served up on a platter when the three cases go to trial before robed judges.
There will be lame excuses from the accused why they chose to drink and then got behind the wheel of a vehicle. There will be objections and sidebars, expert witnesses and cross examinations and display of gruesome photographs of the accidents’ scenes.
Heart-broken family members may testify on the witness stand, wishing to God they did not have to do so.
When the trials run their slow course, a verdict will be rendered. At a later date, a sentence will be imposed, and the tears will stream down faces once again, not only for the victim but also from the prisoners’ loved ones.
The prisoner will be ordered to stand while the sentence is imposed. He or she may offer a timid apology for his or her drunken actions. Such a trite group of words is worth less than a copper penny.
Then the prison sentence will start.
Families will be torn asunder. Nothing will ever be the same, simply because someone freely chose to drink alcohol and drive a vehicle. It just does not make sense.
Young people cannot understand the lingering impact of their actions. Drinking beer is advertised as being something people do surrounded by smiling friends, sometimes in a tavern where moose and beavers wander around the bar, and flocks of Canada geese make broken glass look beautiful. What could ever be wrong with a few bottles of brew, especially in such an urbane setting?
There are no ads peddling booze that show the late-night accidents or the horror filled minds of those who witness the death of a loved one caused by a drunk driver.
Judging from the volume of comments under our stories about those recent tragedies on the Web site, readers loathe drunk drivers. In essence, many expressed sentiments like, “We hope the drunk driver rots in hell for what he (she) did to this family. Our hearts go out to them.”
Knowing many people wish that you would “rot in hell” for drinking and then driving is a good reason not to take that action in the first place. That doesn’t stop people from doing so. Thoughtless men and women will drink and drive, just as they will talk on a cell phone while driving, which is also illegal and also causes many accidents.
Other commenters like to cite lack of law enforcement as the reason for driving while intoxicated accidents. To their credit, when police hold drunk driving check points in early morning hours, they often catch drivers who always claim to have had “two beers.”
If police officers were posted on every street corner and on every mile of road, drinking drivers would remain a menace to the public. Until the mindset of the public changes, the problem will never depart from us.
The only thing that will ever make a difference is when, individually, drivers realize the awesome power and responsibility that comes with a driver’s license and a set of car keys. When they have sufficient courage to refuse to drink because they are planning to drive, then and only then, will there be a marked decline in drunk driving deaths.
As often seems the case, in three of this county’s last four fatal motorcycle or moped accidents, the drivers who caused the tragedies were relatively unscathed, which makes the injustice seem even greater to the families of the deceased.
If not on the courthouse steps, but in another public place, it is time for a candlelight vigil where Mothers Against Drunk Driving can read the names of those who perished, prayers can be prayed and healing songs sung. Once again, the conscience of the public needs to be jogged. It must be reminded that drivers who drink kill our friends and relatives.
Those M.A.D.D. candlelight vigils and roll calls must be reinstituted. To borrow a phrase from the Gettysburg Address “that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion.”
Drunk drivers have killed too many good people.