THE nationwide push to criminalize operating a motor vehicle with a
.08 percent blood-alcohol content is an unfortunate result of the
demagoguery of organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (Page
1B, Dec. 28).

Most traffic crash fatalities involve sober people. Government
statistics show that persons with low blood-alcohol levels (.01
percent to .09 percent) were involved in 5.8 percent of all fatal
crashes, while 76 percent of fatal crashes were listed as
non-alcohol-related.

But despite these facts, MADD continues to fan the flames of political
hysteria, leading the president to call for further erosion of
motorists' rights, already limited by implied consent laws, license
suspensions, the use of road blocks and punishments that far exceed
the offense.

It's time to focus our efforts against drunk driving where it will
really make a difference. Not on enacting harsher and harsher
penalties for social drinkers, to the point where leaving the scene of
an accident becomes a less serious crime than being caught driving
with a .08 blood-alcohol content, but on the high-blood alcohol
drivers and repeat offenders who make up the majority of
alcohol-related traffic fatalities.