Letter: A losing proposition

Editor, Daily News:

A recent letter writer wrote that "red-light running" in Collier County is epidemic and Sheriff Don Hunter has done nothing to stop it.

Look around the next time you approach an intersection and drive defensively, as it's impossible to have a deputy at every stop light in the county. Sheriff Hunter, his officers and other law-enforcement officers in the county, including the Florida Highway Patrol, know from their experience that drunk drivers on our roads are the biggest menace we have on the roads and that every vehicle becomes a car bomb when drunk drivers are behind the wheel.

Law-enforcement officers are doing an excellent job, as DUI arrests prove. For the three-month period of March, April and May 2006, DUI arrests totaled 402. Age 18 years to 29 had 169; age 30 to 40 had 102; age 41 to 50 had 89; age 51 to 60 had 33; and age 61 and over had 15. Of the total 402 arrests, 83 percent were male drivers and 17 percent were female.

A DUI conviction is no laughing matter. Cases involving accidents can cost thousands of dollars before they are resolved; and when a death occurs, families and friends are affected forever.

Benjamin Franklin was quoted as saying: "Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late."

Remember: You drink, you drive, you lose.

Francis J. Gochal , Naples