[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 39 (Thursday, March 11, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H1174]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




WE MUST STOP DRUNK DRIVERS FROM DESTROYING THE LIVES OF INNOCENT PEOPLE

  (Mr. CLEMENT asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CLEMENT. Madam Speaker, this past week I lost a true friend as 
well as my chief of staff, Alex Haught, who was killed in an automobile 
wreck in Nashville, Tennessee, the victim of a drunk driver.
  Perhaps the only thing more shocking than the suddenness of Alex's 
death was the information about the reckless individual who got behind 
the wheel of the 2-ton van that slammed into Alex's car. In the past 20 
years he had been arrested over 70 times for crimes, including frequent 
public drunkenness, he had been convicted of driving while intoxicated, 
and his license had been revoked for over 8 years. Worse yet, he had 
gotten out of jail having served only 3 days of a 10-day sentence the 
day he killed Alex.
  This sickens me, Madam Speaker. Our system has broken down at every 
level, the local, State and Federal. We must revisit laws at every 
level of government to find ways to keep drunk drivers from destroying 
the lives of innocent people. In addition, we are going to have to look 
at some harsh measures that we have never looked at before.
  Are we going to keep operating the ambulance in the valley, or are we 
going to build a permanent fence to help our people, to help our 
families, to help our loved ones and to ensure that this senseless loss 
of life does not happen again? I assure Alex that we are going to look 
at those laws at the local, State and Federal level and do everything 
we possibly can to use you as well as others as an example that the 
time has come that we have got to get these drunk drivers off the road. 
God bless you, Alex.

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