Functional Styles. Афанасьева Н.Р - 23 стр.

       I hate them. I really hate them. Every time I read about another           Crouch was killed, leaving behind a son and a wife, who was 8
innocent person slaughtered by a drunken driver, I become enraged.         months pregnant.
       So when I saw the nationally broadcast PBS special on drunken              After the" accident, Burke's lawyer told reporters: "It's our feel-
driving last week, I did not react as many did. I did not think it was     ing that there's a defense no matter what charges come down." That
sensitive and forthright.                                                  line wasn't in the documentary, of course.
       I did not react as Phil Donahue, the host, did when he came on             Burke's lawyer did a heck of a fine job, by the way. He was
at the end and said: "I was – enormously moved by this documentary,        worth whatever he cost, because Burke's case was plea-bargained. In
as I’m sure you were.                                                      return for a guilty plea, the charge of homicide with a motor vehicle
       Not me, Phil. I wanted to kick in the set.                          while intoxicated was dropped. Instead, Burke pleaded guilty to
       I was plenty moved for the victims. I was plenty moved for the      charges of driving under the influence and failing to stay in the proper
people who were crippled, paralyzed, reduced to vegetables or killed.      lane.
But the drunken drivers themselves did not move me. I thought most                His driver's license was revoked. He was sentenced to two years
got off real easy.                                                         of unsupervised probation, fined $500 and ordered to produce a docu-
       First, let me tell you about the magnitude of the problem.          mentary on the results of drinking and driving.
Someone is killed by a drunken driver every 20jninutes in this country.           But having seen his documentary, I get the impression that one
On any given weekend night, on any road in America, 1 out of every         of the big results of drinking driving for Burke was getting exposure
10 drivers is drunk.                                                       on national TV.
       Which is why drunken drivers will continue to get off easy. Be-            The show, which he also narrates, uses a lot of euphemisms.
cause so many of the lawmakers, so many of the jurors, so many of the      Drivers are "impaired" after "imbibing." In one case, we are told that a
judges have driven drunk themselves. They have a certain amount of         drunken driver who killed a family of five "didn't mean it; he didn't
sympathy for those who get caught.                                         even remember it happening."
       The purpose of the documentary, called “Drinking and Driving:              But didn't he mean it? Don't all drunken drivers mean it? If you
The Toll, The Tears," was to show that drunken drivers don't get off       drink 6 to 11 glasses of wine, Burke did, and then get behind the
easy. Sometimes they go to jail and sometimes they lose their licenses     wheel, just what is it you do mean?
and sometimes they lose their jobs, we were told.                                 In the last segment, Burke comes on the screen. He stands there
       But, in reality, they rarely do. Most drunken drivers get away      in a nice suit and there is very dramatic background music. He tells us
with it. If they are caught,' and few are, most go out and hire the best   about a driver who pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of
lawyers they can afford in order to beat the rap.                          alcohol. This driver had worked "long hours and began celebrating."
       The element that made this documentary special is that it was       And then this driver crashed into a guy and he now suffers a "melan-
produced and written by Kelly Burke, 39, a Washington, D.C., televi-       choly paradoxically like that of the victims. "
sion reporter. At 6:17 A.M. on July 1, 1984, after having 6 to                    And, Burke tells us, this driver now is "bumming rides" and tak-
       11 glasses of wine, Burke crossed the center line in his van and    ing "buses and the subway" because his license was revoked. Legal
crashed head-on into a pick-up track driven by Dennis Crouch, 32,          fees are high. If this weren't enough, "social activists kept saying he
who was on his way to Army Reserve training.                               hadn't suffered enough."
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