Opinion

TIME TO PLAY HARDBALL WITH KILLER DRUNKS

THE ISSUE: Former Yankee Jim Leyritz’s drunk-driving accident, which left one woman dead.

The reason we have road killers, like former Yankee Jim Leyritz, free to risk the lives of those around them is because our courts don’t suspend licenses often enough for driving offenses (“License To Kill,” Jan. 2).

More importantly, our courts don’t jail those who drive without licenses or auto insurance.

Drivers who intentionally flout the law and risk the lives of others should receive jail terms and have their licenses permanently revoked.

Driving should be considered a privilege to be earned, not a birthright.

Michael J. Gorman
Whitestone

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It is tragically ironic that the woman killed by Leyritz worked at a bar that regularly served him liquor to the point that he was intoxicated.

We need several national drunk-driving laws. Anyone with a suspended license should have his car impounded until that suspension is terminated.

Any establishment serving enough liquor to allow its patrons to get drunk should have its liquor license revoked.

Anyone convicted of driving drunk or refusing a breathalyzer test should have his license suspended for a period of two years.

Where do the gutless presidential candidates stand on this? Every unnecessary death at the hands of a drunk driver asks that question. Why do they not answer?

Michael Brozinsky
Central Islip

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When Michael Vick killed dogs, we heard about it for months on every TV network and in every newspaper.

When Leyritz kills a woman while he was driving drunk, there is little national media coverage. You’d think that killing dogs is more serious than killing a woman.

If we don’t go after Leyritz much harder than we went after Vick, we’re a hypocritical country.

Edward Drossman
Manhattan

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It wouldn’t shock me if some judge who’s a Yankee fan gives World Series “hero” Leyritz probation or a suspended sentence.

Leyritz will no longer be known primarily as a “Braves killer.” Now he will also be known as a drunk-driving killer of an innocent woman, wife and mother.

Richard Siegelman
Plainview