News That's Fit to Print: July 30, 2009

Well, this reporter's been quite busy as of late, but of course news stories don't stop just because I'm busy. There are a lot of major news stories happening right now: Obama's Beer Summit, the Health Care debate, and of course all of the sad news connected with the economy, but I'd like to leave those stories for some of the other fine writer's here on Associated Content.

As happens every day in this country, there's been a spate of motor vehicle incidents in my area lately that I'd like to share with you. They point to a larger and often overlooked problem that leads to a lot of unnecessary deaths and countless shattered lives: reckless and drunken driving. With all the worries that befall society, such as terrorism, swine flu epidemics, and weather disasters, too little attention is given to the sweeping terror that we encounter every single day and takes more than 40,000 lives every year. Here are the latest in an immeasurable list of stories that have ruined the lives of many.

Taconic State Parkway Tragedy

On Sunday afternoon, a minivan driven by Diane Schuler, 36, was going the wrong way on the Taconic State Parkway in New York, inevitably crashing head-on into an SUV and killing seven people, including Schuler's daughter Erin, 2, her nieces Emma, 8, Alyson, 7, and Kate, 5. Passengers in the SUV, Michael Bastardi, 81, his son Guy Bastardi, 49, and their friend Daniel Luongo, 73, all from Yonkers, were also killed. The only survivor of the tragic accident was Shuler's son Bryan, 5, who remains in stable condition in a local hospital.

Police are still investigating why Schuler had entered the northbound side of parkway in a southbound direction. The family had been headed home from a weekend camping trip in Sullivan County, and apparently Shuler had not been feeling well, according to her brother and father of the three girls in the minivan, Warren Hance, whom she had called sometime before the crash. Though this accident is not apparently the result of drunken or reckless driving, one has to wonder just how a person comes to drive the wrong way on a parkway.

A Drunk Driver Gets His Due

In an emotional sentencing last Wednesday, Rahiem Griffin, 28, was given 7 years in prison for slamming into a parked police cruiser on the side of the Long Island Expressway in May 2008, severely injuring Nassau County police officer Kenneth Baribault, 31. Griffin received the maximum sentence for driving while intoxicated, driving without a license, vehicular assault, and other charges.

Baribault had just pulled over another suspected drunken driver and was standing outside the vehicle when he was hit by Griffin. His sister appeared in court to let off some steam: "You plowed directly into my brother's life that morning. The mangled metal represents what happened to his young and healthy brain...The shattered glass signifies the utter destruction my brother's absence has caused to his son's life." Baribault is afflicted with severe brain damage and will never return to what he once was.

The case spurred officials in Nassau County to formulate a new plan in combating drunken driving. Soon after Griffin's arrest, he became the first person to be featured on the County's online "Hall of Shame", a public display of the names and faces of DWI scofflaws intended to deter others from committing such irresponsible acts. A court has since forced the County to amend this controversial tactic to include only those who have been convicted of a DWI offense, so it's not as visible as it was when it first started. At least the operation was an out-of-the-box attempt at diminishing drunken driving.

Double Dose of DWI

Within 33 hours, last weekend, Eric Nelson, 20 was arrested twice for being intoxicated while at the controls of a vehicle. On Saturday, he'd been spotted in Massapequa Cove operating a motor boat at excessive speeds. Bay constables stopped him and noticed all the telltale signs of intoxication, including slurred speech, glassy eyes, and a strong smell of alcohol on his breath. After testing with a .14 alcohol level in his blood, almost twice the legal limit, Nelson was arrested for BWI. He pleaded guilty just eight hours before his next offense.

On Sunday afternoon, Nelson was arrested once again, this time for driving his car under the influence. He had already been on probation for another drunken driving conviction in April 2008, so he now faces upgraded charges of felony DWI, which carries a maximum sentence of up to 4 years in prison. Clearly, this young man's arrests reflect a huge problem in our society that driving under the influence has become an epidemic in this country, and more needs to be done about it before one more innocent person gets killed.

Sources:

Amon, Michael. "Amid heartbreak, mystery remains." LI Newsday 29 July 2009: A2-3. Print.

Amon, Michael and Maloney, Jennifer. "5 family members die on Taconic Pkwy." LI Newsday: A3. Print.

Givens, Ann. "2^nd alcohol charge within hours." LI Newsday: A22. Print.

Givens, Ann. "Judge: 'A very evil act.'" LI Newsday 23 July 2009: A7. Print.