Alcohol related deaths in California have gone DOWN 61-percent since 1980. While drivers and miles driven has gone UP 15-percent.” (Passage I) The reasons for this are all of the following except:
Directions: Answer the question on the basis of what is stated or implied in the twin passage.
Passage – I
The death of Deputy Jeff Anderson brought Rebecca Bearden to the reality that drinking drivers were not just the butt of party jokes. They were killers needing to be stopped. Rebecca Bearden says of her accident, "We were hit head on by a wrong way drunk driver, point-two-8 with two priors and he hit us. My fiancée was killed; I was very critically injured and not expected to live." That's when she joined MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving. While drunk driving has been illegal in California since 1911, enforcement was lax until MADD set out to change society's perception of the drunk driver. Rebecca Bearden says, "It's not just a car accident. It is a crime, and it is a violent crime. And we have worked very hard and have succeeded in convincing society that that is so." That change in mind-set meant that designated drivers were not sissies but socially responsible. Citizens embraced sobriety checkpoints as an acceptable inconvenience. It was ok to have a sober high school graduation. Spike Helmick of the California Highway Patrol says, "Those things have changed. It wasn't that way 25 years ago. Your chances of surviving on a California freeway are much better than the US average in part because the cops and the CHP are out there doing what they can to keep the drunks from killing you." Alcohol related deaths in California have gone DOWN 61-percent since 1980. While drivers and miles driven has gone UP 15-percent. The sanctions are swift and steep. In California an officer can yank a driver’s license on the spot if the driver tests drunk. Cliff Helander is a research manager for the Department of Motor Vehicles, "We evaluated the law after it was implemented in 1990 and found that it has a reduction of about 15-percent on alcohol related matters." The chance of being arrested again is cut in half if the driver completes a treatment program. The work is far from over. California still arrests a drunk driver every six minutes. And one in fifty California drivers know someone killed by a drunk driver. There's much yet to do. Rebecca refers to the drunk driver having a .28 blood alcohol concentration (BAC). The amount of alcohol in a person’s body is measured by the weight of the alcohol in a certain volume of blood. It is expressed as grams per deciliter of blood. In most states a person is considered intoxicated (drunk enough to make driving ability impaired) with a .10 BAC. The legal level in California is .08
Passage – II
The Allstate Foundation, Freeway Watch and Sierra On-Line today announced a strategy to increase safe driving behavior and decrease drunk driving among Utah teenagers by the year 2002. This strategy includes statewide initiatives for empowering citizens to recognize and report drunk drivers and for adopting a new, interactive teaching tool for Utah high school driver's education courses by 2002. Sandra Daumke, Regional Corporate Relations Manager for the Allstate Insurance in the Phoenix Region, will present a donation to Suzanne Peterson, Freeway Watch President, to purchase 150 copies of Driver's Education '99 from Sierra On-Line, part of the Cendant Software family, for high school driver education teachers throughout Utah. The Allstate Foundation plans to include Driver's Education '99, a risk-free 3D driving simulation for the PC, in all Utah high school driver education curriculums in order to increase and promote safe and defensive driving behavior among teens. Lt. Governor Olene Walker will read a Proclamation entitled "Operation 2002: Youth Safe Driving." This proclamation urges citizens to make Utah a safer place to live, work and raise a family by learning how to recognize and report DUI drivers and teaching youth safe driving behavior. In addition, Mary Phillips, MADD Vice-President Utah Chapter, will talk about her daughter Lizz who was killed by a drunk, unlicensed sixteen-year-old driver.