David Obey: “I do not need any lectures from anybody about the dangers of drunk driving. When I was in junior high school, I was…”

“I do not need any lectures from anybody about the dangers of drunk driving. When I was in junior high school, I was knocked off my bicycle by a truck driver who had spent 4 hours in a tavern rather than doing what he was supposed to be doing that day. My grandfather was killed in an accident involving drunk driving. So I have had experience with drunk drivers. But I have also had experience with seeing people killed or maimed because of bad highways. I used to live on a two-lane highway, Highway 29, in Marathon County, Wisconsin. A car was demolished simply pulling into our driveway because it was a badly engineered road. If that highway had been modernized, those people would not have been mangled. The problem with this bill is that it sacrifices highway safety in one area because of concern in another area, and I think that is wrong.”