“I KNOW everyone says the jails are bursting at the seams — but so are the cemeteries.”

All - Wednesday, April 20, 1983 - North Shore News

DRINKING DRIVERS

MADDened victims want greater punishment

She would see jail as an

The words are spoken by Rita Akselrod. She’s angry, she’s frustrated and she’s determined. And she’s the president of the Vancouver chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD).

Her 24-year-old daughter Sherry was killed on Boxing Day 1979.

“Her car was rear-ended by a young drunk driver who was on his way to buy some more beer after drinking,” says Akselrod, who has been lobbying the politicians ever since for tougher action against drinking drivers.

It’s more than the grief of losing her daughter which has spurred her on. It’s the belief that something ts very wrong with a system which allows such drivers to pay a fine and later be allowed to get back behind the wheel.

Like the one responsible for her daughter's death.

“He left the scene of the accident, returned an hour and three-quarters later and blew .07.” The legal defini- tion of an impaired driver is one whose blood-alcohol ratio exceeds .08.

“They dropped the hit- and-run and = impaired charges. He got one year's probation and a $1,000 fine.”

MADD, started in California in 1980 by another mother of a child who was killed, has expanded beyond immediate victims of alcohol-related driving deaths to include anyone

Radio ruse

didn't work fwice

A 16-YEAR-OLD West Vancouver boy has been charged with two counts of theft over $200 as a result of walkic-talkic radios being stolen from the local fire department.

The first ame ut occurred, nobody even realized one of the walkie -talkics had gone missing until North Van- couver RCMP called the fire department to say a youth had handcd tt in aftcr saying he had found 1t

The radio had been taken nght from a firetruck while it was parked in the firchall

Neat tame the fire department had ae radio handed back to Unem they were morc than a little suspicious The walhic talkic had been taken from a fire truck parked at the fire traming grounds in the 100 block Kewth Road the previous day

Pare personnel youth

scant. the down to the local pohce detachment: where he was charged

CLASSIFIED» 986-6272

who is concerned about drinking drivers.

Akselrod is busy these days furthering MADD's cause on the North Shore.

She has been addressing classes prior to graduation, is impressed by the police Counter Attack program against drinking drivers and monitors the courts. MADD will be setting up an in- formation booth at Capilano Mall April 21-22.

“You have a very active Counter Attack group here,” she notes, “and the young people in the schools are very active and com- mendable.”

But her criticism against the local courts is the same as against most others — that they're too lenient with drinking drivers.

Only last week, she says, a driver charged as a result of an incident which killed the 21-year-old son of one of the

Rugs

Fixtures

Dressers Buffets Chairs

By CHRIS LLOYD

local MADD members back in March last year was discharged in Vancouver

automatic penalty for all drivers convicted of alcohol offences.

In addition, she is calling for longer suspensions — a

provincial court on a_ year for the first offence and

technicality. five years for the second. “He had a reading of .21,” “And a lifetime suspension

says Akselrod. for a driver responsible for a “Our objective is to killing.”

eliminate drunk drivers from the street. she says. The power to do that lies in the hands of the courts, she insists.

MADD wants to see drastically tougher action against drinking drivers. The most fundamental of their demands are for mandatory blood test for drivers who have been drinking and for manslaughter charges to be laid in instances which have led to a death.

Akselrod is campaigning for several other changes in the courts. Such changes,

Another key in keeping drinkers off the roads, she says, is a change in public attitudes — to make drunk drivers socially acceptable.

“They should be branded as drunk drivers,” she says. She favors the Scandinavian idea of specially colored licence plates for drivers who have been convicted of alcohol offences. (“At least let me get out of their way.”)

MADD's information booth display will be at Cap Mall April 22 from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. and April 23 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Anyone

she considers, are the only wishing more information effective deterrent to should. call 985-8901, 327- AKSELROD .... thinks jail terms should be automatic drinking drivers. 0948 or 327-4383.

e

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