Exaggerating number killed by drunken drivers
The claim that drunken drivers kill 15,000 people each year is simply not true (“Pet bill of MADD still lacks support,” Nov. 26). The majority of these deaths consist of drunken drivers killing themselves. Many more of the “alcohol-related” fatalities reported by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration involve drunken pedestrians struck by sober drivers, and accidents in which a passenger is drunk but the driver is sober. “Alcohol-related” is not tantamount to “alcohol-caused.”
