Wednesday, Feb. 26, 1964 University Daily Kansan
Page 9
Psychiatrist Believes Alcoholism Responsible for More Accidents
NEW YORK—(UPI)—A psychiatrist long specialized in the disease alcoholism believes drinking is responsible for many more automobile accidents than official traffic statistics can ever indicate.
Dr. M. M. Glatt based himself largely on the private admissions of his patients over the years. Most of them acknowledged driving cars while under the influence, and to having done so steadily for years.
In those years persons in the slowly tightening grip of the disease have done an enormous amount of "impaired" drinking and it has to follow they've caused an enormous amount of damage — even if they've never been charged with drunken driving.
To him these figures were alarming. The least even a relatively small alcoholic content does to a driver is "impair" his driving. It sometimes takes years for habitual drinking to culminate in a full-blown case of alcoholism, when the sickness is evident to all, particularly policemen.
Of male drivers, one out of every three confided to having "gotten into trouble" because of it, and of female drivers this figure was one in two, he said.
"THE BETTER one got to know an alcoholic or his relatives the less likely was one to find an alcoholic car-driver who had not been driving regularly for several or even many
years after heavy drinking." Glatt said.
"Minor' scrapes' are apparently quite common, and are freely admitted by many alcoholics who often confess openly that for years they have taken 'fantastic' or 'appalling' risks. Often alcoholics report having driven in a state of alcoholic 'blackout'. They may wake up in the morning wondering where they have left the car only to find it in the garage."
Glatt asked these alcoholics if it had not occurred to them that they should not mix drinking and driving. The usual reply, Glatt said, was "that at the time they never felt that they had had a lot of drink."
A number of his patients, Glatt continued, were at their worse as "impaired" drivers while in hang-over the morning after a binge. Hung-over drivers cannot be charged with drunken driving, of course, but they can sometimes be more dangerous to others than drunken ones.
IN HIS VIEW, traffic court magistrates should pressure drivers who are caught more than once driving under the influence into undergoing medical examination, observation and treatment — if they are on their way to a full-blown case of alcoholism. The magistrates could do it by making it a condition of a light or suspended sentence.
"Unhappily, many alcoholics now
come for therapy only in late phases," he continued. "Chained by their alcoholic affliction they are not really free to make a decision to undergo treatment. Doctors and magistrates can at one and the same time arrest the further downhill path of alcoholics and diminish the considerable risk stemming from one important source of traffic accidents."
Glatt is well known in medical science for his work in London alcoholism clinics. He put forth his views in the technical journal, "The Lancet."
HOUSTON—(UPI)—Henry Fletcher's automobile bumped into a pedestrian yesterday. The pedestrian struck and snapped back.
Pedestrian Snaps Back
Fletcher said the man, who was only grazed, went to one side of the car and hit Fletcher's niece with a metal construction worker's hat. He then rounded the auto and bit Fletcher in the finger.
HELP WANTED
to elect
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IBM will interview March 3,4.
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DATA PROCESSING
EVOL SPELLED BACKWARDS IS LOVE
They met. His heart leapt. "I love you!" he cried.
"Me too, boo!" she cried.
"Me too, hey!" she cried.
"Tell me," he cried, "are you a girl of expensive tastes?" "No. hey." she cried. "I am a girl of simple tastes."
"Good," he cried, "for my cruel father sends me an allowance barely large enough to support life."
"Money does not matter to me," she cried. "My tastes are simple; my wants are few. Just take me riding in a long, new, yellow convertible and I am content."
"Goodbye," he cried, and ran away as fast as his little stumpy legs would carry him, for he had no yellow convertible, nor the money to buy one, nor the means to get the money—short of picking up his stingy father by the ankles and shaking him till his wallet fell out.
He knew he must forget this girl, but lying on his pallet at the dormitory, whimpering and moaning, he knew he could not.
At last an idea came to him: though he did not have the money to buy a convertible, perhaps he had enough to rent one!
Hope reborn, he rushed on his little stumpy legs (curious to tell, he was six feet tall, but all his life he suffered from little stumpy legs) he rushed, I say, to an automobile rental company and rented a yellow convertible for $10 down plus ten cents a mile. Then, with many a laugh and cheer, he drove away to pick up the girl.
"Oh, bully!" she cried when she saw the car. "This suits my simple tastes to a 'T.' Come, let us speed over rolling highroads and through bosky dels."
Away they drove. All that day and night they drove and finally, tired but happy, they parked high on a wind-swept hill. "Mr Marlow?" he said.
"Marlboro?" he said.
"Yum, yum," she said.
They lit their Marlboros. They puffed with deep contentment. "You know," he said, "you are like a Marlboro—clean and fresh and relaxing."
"Yes, I am clean and fresh and relaxing," she admitted. "But, all the same, there is a big difference between Marlboros and me, because I do not have an efficacious white Selectrate filter."
They laughed. They kissed. He screamed.
"What is it, hey?" she asked, her attention aroused.
"Look at the speedometer," he said. "We have driven 200 miles, and this car costs ten cents a mile, and I have only $20 left."
"But that is exactly enough," she said.
"Yes." he said, "but we still have to drive home."
"Oh," she said. They fell into a profound gloom. He started the motor and backed out of the parking place.
"Hey, look!" she cried. "The speedometer doesn't move when you are backing up."
He looked. It was true. "Eureka!" he cried. "That solves my problem. I will drive home in reverse. Then no more miles will register on the speedometer and I will have enough money to pay!"
"I think that is a smashing idea," she said, and she was right. Because today our hero is in the county jail where food, clothing, and lodging are provided free of charge, and his allowance is piling up so fast that in two or three years he will have enough money to take his girl riding again. ©1964 Max Shulman
Marlboro Cigarettes, good as they are, should not be smoked backwards. We, the makers of Marlboro, most earnestly urge you to light only the tobacco end. Otherwise your smoking pleasure will be substantially diminished.
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