Drunks, not roads, are the problem

Regarding "How's your driving?; If you volunteer, insurance company will track your habits" [News, Dec. 10]: Can you imagine if all insurance companies mandated installation of these electronic monitoring devices in every motor vehicle they insured?

Just think of the 30 percent reduction in premiums for the safe drivers. Think of the power of restraint on the reckless ones - they would get penalized with higher and higher premiums the more they jazzed around, putting the rest of us at risk.

It wouldn't take an accident or a fatality, a speeding ticket or a high-speed chase, not even a court decision for them to get hurt where it counts: in the wallet.

Harry Carter

Bayville

Certainly our recent spate of wrong-way crashes is devastating, but the state Department of Transportation spokeswoman Eileen Peters is right: the roads are safe for "alert, sober" drivers.

If you're too impaired to notice pairs of headlights racing toward you, you're too impaired to notice any number of engineered solutions.

Instead of blaming the roads, we should focus on the drunks who are still driving on them.

Lisa Kristel

Syosset

Yes, yes, yes, to the editorial "Perilous roads - or drivers?" [Dec. 9]. I have been hearing so much about this lately, and news reports make it sound like the roads are the problem. The roads are fine and have been for decades. The answer is the drunken drivers.

There have been many incidents this year that have involved alcohol- or drug-related wrong-way drivers. You hit the nail on the head when you said "there's no rampant problem with wrong-way driving." What's killing people are drugs and alcohol.

I see they might be putting rearview cameras in cars soon. Why not put alcohol sensors in all cars too? I'm sure more people are killed by drunk drivers than by cars backing up.

Timothy Murray

West Babylon

Part of the answer to the wrong-way drunken drivers on Long Island is tougher enforcement of the law. While we have come a long way when it comes to getting tough on drunk drivers, we still have a long way to go.

Many driving-while-intoxicated cases involve second- or third-time offenders. Stop letting them plead to a lesser charge. Seize their cars and don't let them register anything.

There isn't anyone out there who doesn't know the possible consequences of driving drunk. It's time to get tougher on drivers convicted of DWI.

Martin Siegmann

Bethpage