| This isn't entirely true. I'm reading a book called "Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City" by Peter Norton where he talks about this a little bit. This book mostly focuses on the advent of the automobile and the impact it had on American cities, whose streets where mostly for horses and the people before this development. Reckless drivers who killed kids and young adults was a huge problem even then. Playing on the street was normal back then; cars hurtling through was unexpected, and kids weren't prepared to dodge them. More people died from car accidents than soldiers lost in World War I four years after the Model T entered production. Many city dwellers called for the lynching of reckless drivers (who were mostly white, as cars were very expensive back then). "Safety Weeks" where entire cities built memorials for all of the kids that died at the hand of the automobile were very popular for a few years. Before streetlights were common, cities used "silent cornermen" to enforce traffic flow. These primitive devices were basically huge, heavy posts that would completely obliterate people's cars if they weren't paying attention. This isn't to say that DWI isn't under enforced. I read a story the other day in /r/BatonRouge of a driver who killed a family while they were driving drunk. This was their fifth DUI offense. They were sentenced 20 years in state person. They only served 18 months. Didn't even lose their license. |