I wasn't alive in the 1970's, so I indeed lack that context. However, I'm not arguing against punishment for drunk driving or anything crazy like that, just that it's possible we've passed the ideal point for how much punishment is appropriate for drunk driving. As far as I can tell, the journalist isn't either, just arguing that it should be covered by more generalized offenses rather than ones specific to alcohol. To be honest, that doesn't seem too radical.

A journalist "advocating" for anything is already pretty radical.

I'm sorta one, and I'll be the first to say that the newsroom is not a place for activism.

Fun with statistics…my gut tells me that if we looked at all fatalities on road miles driven basis, I’m not sure these statistics would look so impressive how much of that number is due to people wearing seatbelts, airbags/safer cars?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transportation_safety_in_the...

You can use total fatalities as the baseline - 18% drop, which includes effects of the massive drunk driving fatalities.