Raymond Cook, formerly a UNC assistant professor, is charged with second-degree murder, driving while impaired and other charges. Cook allegedly was driving a car at 85 mph while under the influence of alcohol. He struck another car and killed a 20-year-old ballet dancer. He had been convicted of drunken driving in Georgia in 1989.

In August of 2008, Christopher Kearney, a UNC tennis star, consumed 12 or more beers and then drove down Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. He ran into two people, injuring them very seriously. He received a prison sentence of 10 to 12 months.

These two terrible tragedies should re-ignite us in our desire to reduce the amount of drunken driving.

Rob Shofield wrote an article in this newspaper in which he made six suggestions to deal with the problem. I will respond to them, one by one.

1. Hire more police and raise the salaries of police. I absolutely agree that police are underpaid. And so are teachers, nurses, CNA's, social workers and court clerks, just to name a few. At the same time, government spending has increased markedly in the last few years -- to the extent that we have to stop. So if we pay one segment of our city work force more money, we have to subtract the money from some other source. This is VERY difficult to do.

2. Make penalties for DWI tougher. Our Legislature has done a good job in improving our DWI laws. However, there are still some improvements that can be made. The good part is that the Legislature works on the DWI laws every year. The bad part is they keep adding provisions without revising the laws to make them simpler. This job is very difficult, for the law is very complex.

3. Change the acceptable blood-alcohol level from .08 to .04. Our acceptable level of blood-alcohol used to be .10. This was changed to .08. This was not an easy change: There was spirited debate in the Legislature. If a lowering of the present .08 is proposed, there will be many representatives that will contend that .08 is satisfactory, that it is in keeping the norm that is accepted in most states. The reduction to .08 met stiff resistance; therefore a reduction to .04 would not fly.

4. Bigger investments in automobile safety. This is clearly a good suggestion; yet it needs to be coupled to the need for smaller cars.

5. Better and harder hitting publicity. Yes! MADD has done a wonderful job at this; and many of our local citizens have worked long and hard at this. Let us use these two tragedies to renew our efforts.

6. Tougher standards for licensing. We need to be super-careful when we re-issue licences to those who have been convicted of DWI.

We should seek to improve laws relative to DWI violations, yet the bottom line is that courts are not effective in bringing about social change. Ultimately the change has to come from the public.

The Phi Gamma Delta fire of 1996 killed five students. Four of the five students who died had enough alcohol in their system to affect their ability to escape the fire.

Courtland Smith, after being at a party at the DKE house, chose to drink and drive. While driving, he behaved in a dangerous and bizarre way and was shot by a police officer.

So now we have four tragedies, all involving abuse of alcohol. The DKE house, long known for abuse of alcohol, can now do a turn-around and become leaders in the effort to educate UNC students on the danger of alcohol.

Here are some of the things we can do:

Be responsible hosts. Be sure that guests do not drive after drinking alcohol. We should never serve alcohol to someone under the age of 21. We can write letters to the editor expressing our concern over drunken driving and underage drinking. We should never ride in a car with someone who has been drinking -- call a cab or ask a friend to drive you home. We should report drunken drivers to area law enforcement. We should become a member of an alcohol related organizations. Here are three:

The grandfather of all the organizations, AA; the Coalition for Alcohol and Drug Free Teenagers, 259-8232, MADD.

Stanley Peele serves as an emergency judge throughout the state. Readers can contact him at chh@heraldsun.com or c/o The Chapel Hill Herald, 106 Mallette St., Chapel Hill, NC 27516.