
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, August 15, 1993                   TAG: 9309110291
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: D2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

SEEING IS BELIEVING

AS A HEALTH educator interested in doing everything possible to stem the tide of drunken drivers on our roads, it seems that the possibility of mass-marketing the breathalizers that law-enforcement officers use might dissuade a significant percentage of our drinking population from getting behind the wheel if they could -know for certain what their blood-alcohol level was.

Too often, we fool ourselves into believing we have not reached the legal limits of impairment, and therefore feel capable of driving. With the increasingly negative social stigma attached to irresponsible behavior such as this, perhaps many would-be drunken drivers would give up their keys, delay their departure or seek alternate means of transportation - if they literally could see their level of intoxication.

Hosts and hostesses who permit alcoholic beverages might even insist upon their guests taking this test before permitting them to leave their premises to drive, for legal-liability questions if for no other reason.

With such ease in demonstrating one`s fitness to drive, perhaps the penalties for those who then knowingly get behind the wheel intoxicated could be stiffened to the point of causing even the most socially unconscionable driver to reflect on the riskiness of their gamble with fate and the law.

WAYNE D. CARLSON

RADFORD

by CNB