Focus on distracted drivers, too

MADD and the state legislators are turning Illinois into a police state.

The allowable blood-alcohol level is so low one drink could put you over. If it does, one DUI arrest will get an electronic interlink that won't let you start your car if it detects any alcohol, so don't rinse your mouth with mouth wash. It may contain alcohol and then you're in trouble.

Yep, they've been spending big bucks on TV commercials and are falling over each other, patting themselves on the back for a job well done. All this while ignoring a bigger problem.

Statistically, people who drive using cell phones, both hand held and hands free, are more dangerous then drunken drivers. Ah, but you say, Chicago has a ban on driving with hand held cell phones.

All well and good, if it were enforced. Not a day goes by that I'm not nearly hit in a downtown Chicago intersection by some moron yakking on a cell phone glued to their ear, or yapping on a hands free phone.

Where are the roadside safety checks for those fools? They should be prosecuted and sent to classes to increase their awareness of their problem. Their car should be fitted with an electronic device to prevent it from running if a cell phone is in use. Let's put their pictures in commercials and stamp "loser" on them.

It's time to protect our roads from distracted drivers, not just drunk drivers. MADD and groups like it need to change their focus. And, unless you get the wrong impression, I've never been stopped or convicted of a DUI, although I've known people who have.

I'm just tired of risking my life crossing the street.

Terry Tallian

Wood Dale