DRINKING AND DRIVING ARE DEADLY COMBINATION

This month's annual Mothers Against Drunk Driving Red Ribbon Campaign is a noble cause rooted in tragedy the needless carnage caused by drunk drivers. It's ironic that amid the holiday joy of the Christmas season, drunk drivers have caused so much sadness.

This Christmas will be one of sorrow at the Cape Girardeau home of Judy and Ed Dambach: Their 31-year-old son and 2-year-old granddaughter were killed in August in the St. Louis area by a drunk driver who had two previous DWI convictions and was driving without a license.

This nation is full of families like the Dambachs: Families that have suffered from the drunken killers of the highways.

We typically refer to such deadly acts as drunk-driving accidents. But the loss of life and limb caused by drunk drivers is not an accident, it's an outrage. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) have every right to be upset by the needless deaths caused by drunk drivers.

Locally, 15,000 red ribbons have been distributed through schools, churches, hospitals and law enforcement agencies. The ribbons are also available at the Procter and Gamble comfort station at West Park Mall. Motorists are asked to tie the red ribbon on their vehicle's antenna or mirror as a reminder to everyone not to drink and drive.

Sadly, statistics show people need such reminders.

Alcohol is a factor in about one-half of all fatal traffic crashes and one-fifth of all crashes involving injury. The cost of alcohol-related traffic injuries in 1985 was about $15 billion. That's the cost of both injuries and deaths, but it doesn't include the added cost of property damage.

The cost of injuries and deaths from drunk drivers in 1985 was equivalent to $73 for every man, woman and child in the U.S. that year. Drunk-driving fatalities are particularly heart-wrenching when youths are involved. Over 3,500 youths, ages 15 to 20, died in alcohol-related crashes in 1990. In 1991, drinking was a factor in over 17,000 fatal crashes and 197,000 injury accidents.

Thanks at least in part to the efforts of MADD and the Community Traffic Safety Program in Cape Girardeau, drunk driving arrests peaked about 10 years ago and alcohol-related accidents have decreased.

But that's little consolation to the Dambachs and others who have suffered the pain of losing loved ones because of the fatal actions of drunk drivers. Drinking and driving are a deadly combination. It's a sober lesson that we should all take to heart.