In 2004, 16,694 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes on America's highways-an average of one almost every half-hour.

National Highway

Traffic Safety Administration

Millions of Americans paused this week to reflect on the events of 9/11 five years ago.

Those attacks by terrorists-the worst on our soil since the Civil War-propelled the nation into another "long twilight struggle," as President Kennedy described the Cold War, to defend "freedom in its hour of maximum danger."

On Monday, did you remember? Or, as country singer Darrel Whorely asks in song, "Have You Forgotten?"

Many who oppose our participation in this war against terrorism cite the body count, which after more than three years in Iraq is approaching 3,000 American dead, in their protests.

But nowhere do we witness the constant drumbeat of outrage against far greater carnage-the needless death and injury and destruction of lives and families that is caused on our highways daily by drunk drivers.

Late last month, an alcohol-impaired driver speeding close to 100 miles an hour crashed into a truck shortly after midnight on Interstate 5 near the Kent-Des Moines interchange.

While the driver was not badly hurt, one of his passengers was transported to Harborview Medical Center in critical condition. The truck driver was seriously injured.

Yet he likely will get little more than a slap on the wrist, for despite all the rhetoric that comes from our legislators-the cowardly lions of Olympia on this life-and-death issue of drinking and driving-we as a society still aren't really serious about driving under the influence.

Our law enforcement agencies are doing their part. If they see you driving hammered, you will get nailed! Unfortunately, police officers usually aren't around to keep drunk drivers from hitting the road before they hit their innocent victims.

The greatest problem remains the laws that Washington's judges are given to deal with drunk drivers-whether or not they have been involved in an alcohol-related accident-following their arrests.

Earlier this year, a driver in Renton plowed through a stop sign and into another car. A 9-month-old girl was killed, a 2-year-old boy was left in a permanent vegetative state, and the baby's mother suffered a fractured spine.

For this, the driver-who had more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system at the time of the accident, and has pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide and two charges of vehicular assault-faces four to six years in prison.

He likely would get at least twice as much time behind bars if he had wreaked this devastation while drunk and brandishing a gun.

Then again, what else can we expect? Drunk drivers must have been left quaking behind the wheel when our cowardly lions of Olympia finally "got tough" this year by making a fifth DUI conviction in 10 years a felon, punishable by a prison sentence of 15 months to five years.

That should be the punishment after a third conviction for driving under the influence-when no injury or fatal accident is involved.

It's time to save lives of the innocent victims of drunk drivers by keeping drunk drivers off the road. If people want to drink, fine. But if they drink and drive, they must loose their privilege to drive and pay hefty fines the first time around.

Those who repeat this crime even once must serve time-for a long time if they injure or kill others while driving drunk.

Yes, as a reporter who has covered his share of alcohol-related fatal accidents, I'm mad. I hope you are, too. Together, we can bring about real change that will save lives.

The views of Ralph Nichols are his own, and do not necessarily reflect those of Robinson Newspapers. He can be reached at newsdesk@robinsonnews.com or 206-388-1857.