“During the past decade, more than 2,000 lives have been lost and more than 50, 000 people have sustained injuries in collisions involving a drinking driver” (Impaired Driving Fact Sheets, 2009). Drinking and driving is a major concern that many people are trying to correct. It has caused many deaths and it is something that is completely preventable. Drinking and driving causes many problems when families lose a family member or have been a victim themselves. Governments in recent years have changed laws and added more consequences that are harsher, in order to help discourage people from driving while under the influence. Many organizations have been created in order to stop it and also create awareness. Drinking and driving effects not only the person doing it but many other people as well. One way that it affects people is emotionally. One person who lost his mother to a car accident caused by a drunk driver said in his victim impact statement, “We are a broken glass that will be put together one piece at a time, but even if we find all the pieces and put them in their places, the cracks will always show” (Sinclair, 2009). Anyone who loses someone will have feelings of sadness but losing someone also causes depression and feelings of anger because it was something that could have been prevented. Feelings of guilt also accompany because loved ones may feel that they should have protected them better. People that have survived a drinking and driving accident maybe
Causes of drinking and driving are various. Some partake in this crime to gain attention from their peers, while some do it solely because their judgment is impaired and it seems like it is not that big of a deal. After the consumption of alcohol, the brain basically processes information at a slower pace than usual. For example, if a drunk person is driving, they cannot see objects at a distance. They also cannot fully pay attention to his or her surroundings, specifically on the road (Mendralla & Grosshandler
The legal consequences of drunk driving are also severe. The more a person drinks, the more their ability to make important decisions wear down and becomes impaired. After even just one drink a person can lose the ability to operate a vehicle. At certain parts in the state of intoxication, it becomes illegal to drive a car and if you get caught it can possible lead to fines, or even imprisonment. The legal limit of alcohol you can consume changes from state to state, but the penalty of driving under the influence is always severe. Getting arrested and maybe being forced to sleep in a drunk tank is just some of the problems you also have to carry the humiliation and the shame of being caught and that person might just end up with their name written up in the local news paper. Alcoholism is a disease and it can make you do some things you would not want to and to repeat you're past mistakes. More than one-third of drives arrested for intoxication are repeat offenders. Drivers with a prior DUI offense have a much higher likelihood to be in a fatal
The legal consequences of drunk driving are also severe. The more a person drinks, the more their ability to make important decisions wear down and becomes impaired. After even just one drink a person can lose the ability to operate a vehicle. At certain parts in the state of intoxication, it becomes illegal to drive a car and if you get caught it can possible lead to fines, or even imprisonment. The legal limit of alcohol you can consume changes from state to state, but the penalty of driving under the influence is always severe. Getting arrested and maybe being forced to sleep in a drunk tank is just some of the problems you also have to carry the humiliation and the shame of being caught and that person might just end up with their name written up in the local news paper. Alcoholism is a disease and it can make
A DUI conviction is a permanent part of ones driving record. Even though alcohol related accidents are on the decline, statistics show that a drunk driver kills someone every forty-five minutes. More so, fifty to seventy percent of drunk drivers whose licenses are suspended continue to drive. In 2000, alcohol related crashes cost the public $114.3 billion dollars! Drunk driving carries with it serious penalties from the court system and car insurance companies. One moment of fun can turn into a lifetime of heartache and tragedy. Therefore, it is not worth the risk. Possible prevention measures and solutions are not only for the law enforcement, but for the public as well. Drunk drivers face a hardcore court system, which is intolerant of DUI. Stricter penalties such as automatic licenses revocation, mandatory jail sentencing, vehicle impounding, and licenses plate confiscating are just a few ways the judicial system is handling the DUI problem. Programs such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against Drunk Driving have led the way to bringing awareness to society. People need to be responsible and supervise their consumption to ensure that they do not drink too much. They have a moral and a legal responsibility to make sure of this. It is always best to have a designated driver. The most effective way people can prevent driving drunk is to make a personal decision not to drink
Although there are many commercials, ads, documentaries, seminars, etc. on the reasons why people should never drink and drive, you would be surprised how many people still get behind the wheel after having had more than just a drink or two. We might not realize it but every day, about 28 people in the United States die in car crashes that involve a drunk driver. This equals to one death every 51 minutes! It’s so sad because these statistics could be way better if people had a well thought out plan prior to going out drinking. There has been research found relating to Drinking and Driving Behaviors since this topic is now becoming more of an issue in this generation than it was in the past. For instance, Schell, Chan, and Morral (2006), found that some people who have a DUI record tend to have pretty high expectations of themselves even after having some drinks in their system (e.g., “I feel more relaxed when drinking"), so with that being said those people with higher confidence were the ones more likely to be engaged in drinking and driving activity. While intoxicated, we often don’t consider any negative consequences that can happen to us but as you’ll see on the news, on social media, in the newspapers, etc. driving while under the influence can be very dangerous and even fatal.
We’ve all heard the phrase don’t drink and drive but how many people listen to this common sense. According to a statistic taken by the Century Council, 31 percent of car fatalities involved alcohol in 2013. Around fifty thousand claims of alcohol overdose is reported annually, what is seen as a social drink or a good times drink is
Driving under the influence of alcohol has been a major issue in America, spanning all the way back to more than 50 years ago (Raymond). Many accidents are caused from drinking and driving yearly, resulting in thousands of deaths and injuries involving innocent people. When alcohol is mixed with driving a motor vehicle, there are no limits to who may be at risk. This means that drunk driving has been harming, hurting and killing many innocent people in America. Over the years I have witnessed many aftermaths of drunk driving accidents and have heard of multiple accidents resulting from alcohol use involving people I know, and people I do not know. Sometimes, in accidents like these, all parties involved may walk away from the accident with
"The problem with drinking and driving is the mourning after", a very simile quote has such a huge meaning behind it, in my family's case we got off lucky. It was a late night, my father received the phone call, I don't think I've seen that look ever in his eyes the 18 years I've been alive. It was about his brother he had gotten in a very catastrophic accident after making the horrible choice to drink and drive. It seemed like the longest drive to Dallas which is where my uncle was airlifted to go into surgery. We arrived at the hospital and were told he was unconscious so I waited in the waiting room with my cousins to comfort them while my aunt and dad were in the room with my uncle. After sitting in the gloomy waiting room for what seemed life forever I decided to take my cousins home we stopped by to get food. His choice to drink and drive was a very bad one, he was unfit to make such a big choice while not in the correct state of mind he had alcohol in his system and lots of it, he had no right to endanger not only his life but every other person that was around him while he was driving. Statistics show that Texas is the leading state for drunk driving cases and Harris county alone had 362 deaths in 2015 alone, driving under the influence not only has physical damage that can be done there's the emotional side that people have to deal with and what the families go through, drunk driving has more effects than just what just meets the eye. Drunk drivers
It also affects your vision, your judgement, and your reaction time. Which in order to properly drive a car you need all of those to be working right or properly. When you’ve been drinking and decide to drive yourself home drunk or intoxicated that is risking a lot. Not only is it risking your life, its risking the other people around you. There may be someone walking down the street and from a drunken person eyes they aren’t close to hitting them but in reality they actually hit the person who is walking down the road and it kills them. Now the drunk driver doesn’t only have to go to jail for not only driving intoxicated but he also has to look the deceased family in their eyes and plead guilty for killing that person while driving intoxicated. Not only does it affect the person who was drinking and driving it also affects the person who was drinking and driving’s family and the family who family member was
In 2013, 10,076 people were killed in drunk driving incidents. Out of those people, 65% (6,515) were drivers, 27% (2,724) were passengers, and 8% (837) were non-passengers (“Drunk Driving Statistics”). Over half of those fatalities (67.1%) involved blood alcohol levels over .15% (“Drunk Driving Statistics”). The legal blood-alcohol content is .08%. Drunk driving caused 31% of deaths in car crashes in 2013 (“Drunk Driving Statistics”). In 2012, 402 people were killed by alcohol impairment in North Carolina (“Drunk Driving Statistics”). These numbers, though they seem astonishing, have been cut in half since 1991 (“Drunk Driving Statistics”). Even though the number of fatalities has been lowered, that number is not low enough. Most drunk drivers are repeat offenders. Lives are being taken because of the careless attitude of the drunk drivers. Drunk driving is selfish; those who commit this crime do not think about the extreme consequences of their actions. In North America it is estimated that 1-5 drivers has been drinking and 1 in 10 is legally impaired on any Friday or Saturday night (Root). Many groups, including MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), are fighting to stop drunk driving. Unfortunately, drunk driving cannot be stopped. People will always commit this heinous crime. The numbers may go down, but unfortunately there will always be a number. The only way to continually decrease the amount of lives lost is to increase punishments for drunk driving.
Drunk driving is an epidemic that continues to have severe and life threatening consequences for those involved, if we simply take a few steps against drunk driving we can help decrease this epidemic.
Approximately one million people are injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes every year and young people, ages 16 to 24 are involved in 28% of those alcohol-related driving accidents, although they make up only 14% of the U.S. population. On any given weekend evening, one in 10 drivers on America's roads has been drinking and according to the latest statistics, in a family of five the prospect of you or someone in your family being involved in an alcohol-related motor vehicle accident in their lifetime, is an astounding 200 percent. That's a lot of tragic, meaningless deaths that could actually have been avoided.
As we all know that there are many people dying or getting severely injured every day because either they are driving under the influence (DUI) or they are victims of those people who drink and drive. The United States is the country which has the most accidents caused by DUI. According to the article “Alcohol Involvement in Fatal Crashes”, the U.S has the most impaired driving accidents. Statistics in the article “Impaired Driving” show that around 10,076 people were killed in ‘alcohol – impaired’ driving in 2013 in the United States. Research shows that people aged 16 to 49 are the ones who are most likely break the laws of DUI, and teenagers are more likely to get into fatal accidents. Therefore, the government, and other organizations have invented programs to help these people and reduce rates of drinking and driving in the United States. For example, Reinforcing Alcohol Prevention (RAP), Criminal Justice Policies, Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) etc. However, not all programs work the same way for everyone. To find out how to reduce drinking and driving rates in the United States using programs, we have to look at what kind of people are breaking DUI laws, what are the causes, and then we can find out which program will work better for a specific group.
Driving while under the influence of alcohol has been an issue over the years. It has caused many car crashes and some even fatal accidents. Not only will it cause pain and suffering on the victim but to the family and friends around the victim it could be very devastating. For many, one drink can be the one mistake that could follow them for the rest of their life. There are many ways to prevent drunk driving but how will they be implemented?
Have you ever lost someone close to you because of a bad decision, or a bad decision someone else made? Drunk driving and driving under the influence of drugs is the leading cause of death in the United States. Everyday 28 people die in the U.S. because of a drunk or drug impaired driver. Everybody makes bad choices, even you and me, but there is a difference between a bad choice and a bad choice that can put others at risk of injury and death.