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by Randy CassinghamRandy Cassingham's Honorary Unsubscribe Recognizes the Unknown, the Forgotten and the Obscure People who Had an Impact on Our Lives
Robert I McCarthy
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An attorney, McCarthy served in the California state Assembly, and then the state Senate. When he was just 37, McCarthy was named the director of the California Department of Motor Vehicles by Gov. Edmund "Pat" Brown in 1958 with the mandate to implement a "get-tough policy" to reduce the carnage on California highways. McCarthy took that mandate seriously, instituting a number of reforms, including one-year license suspensions for drivers who caused fatal accidents, and six-month license suspensions for drunk drivers. The result: traffic fatalities dropped 10 percent statewide within just seven months. The policies survived court challenges, but a number of well-connected and powerful people lost their licenses in the crackdown, and Gov. Brown retreated from his support of the measures and signed a new law to remove the power from the DMV to suspend licenses unless it received a court order. McCarthy resigned in disgust, calling the Brown administration "spineless", and went back to private practice as an attorney. He died November 29 from pneumonia at age 86.
From This is True for 2 December 2007
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