BEHIND THE WHEEL

May 4th, 2006

By Anthony Panzica

The premise behind writing Behind The Wheel is simple,
to enlighten and educate the general public about the dangers
of drinking and driving and raise awareness on a local level
for the issue of DUI. Due to the complex nature of this issue,
this column will not encourage, condemn or judge any person,
industry or community for how they go about dealing with
their cars and bars. This problem affects every city in the
country and if there were a simple solution,
it would have happened long ago.

THE HISTORY OF DUI'S IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

The Red Car Museum on Electric Ave. in Seal Beach is testament
to the lack of adequate public transportation in Southern California.
The Pacific Electric Railroad stopped operating the Red Car in 1950
due to the influx of automobiles and freeways all over the Southland.
Unlike New York City and most other major metropolitan US cities
which have effective public transportation systems, this left Southern
Californians with little choice but to drive themselves everywhere they
needed to go. Lack of public transportation is a major contributing factor
to why the problem of DUI is so prevalent in Southern California, people's
cars are their lives here and they are hesistant to leave them behind,
even for one night.

California's first DUI laws were passed in 1911 but weren't
really taken seriously until the1980's when various citizen groups,
most notably Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) mobilized public
support around the idea that existing drunk driving laws were
totally inadequate. In 1981 the California state legislature responded by
adopting comprehensive changes to the existing DUI laws. It was during
the 1980's that most of todays DUI legislation was passed in to law.
(5 pieces of DUI legislation were passed in to law between 1980 and 1986 alone).
This resulted in mandatory minimum sentences for all offenders including
the requirement that anyone convicted of a DUI attended education and
counseling courses. Today, DUI laws have become increasingly tougher
and it is now even difficult to get jobs in certain industries if you have
one on your record.

HELPFUL FACTS AND FIGURES

Don't be fooled into thinking that beer has less alcohol than
hard liquor or wine.

In fact, a 12 oz. can or bottle of regular beer, 5 oz. of wine, a 12 oz. wine cooler or 1.5 oz. of distilled spirits all contain the same amount of alcohol.

Special thanks to Diane Pridgeon, long-time Sunset Beach resident
and Laura Alioto, President of The Seal Beach Historical Society for
contributing to this column.

Questions, comments or story ideas for Behind The Wheel?
Feel free to call or write any time:
(562) 577-7365
webmail@scooterpatrol.org