Wednesday, February 07, 2007

Underage Drunk Driving - Part II

A few days ago I commented on how a discussion of laws which allow parents to give their children (and only their children) alcohol in their own home. The article continued into the side issue of a high school girl, who had been drinking, and caused a fatal accident. I wondered why every such discussion about alcohol use of any sort led to talk about underage drunk driving.
Now why are these paragraphs in the same article? Why not just remove the word "underage" from the whole article and admit you're trying to ban alcohol?
Well, it turns out it might as well have been that instead. Today we get this news about the crash "victim."
A bartender whose death in a New Year's Day wreck sparked an outpouring of concern about underage drinking was intoxicated at the time of the crash, his family said yesterday.
He didn't cause the accident, but he could have. As a bartender, he presumably knew the risks he was taking himself, and that he was imposing on others as well, but he did it anyway. I hate to call this a mitigating circumstance, but this girl faces 20 years in prison.

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