Character Analysis: The Call: Maria Gomez

Imagine the idea of a college student driving back to her dorm from the grocery store. She waits patiently for the light to turn green as she sings to her favorite song on the radio. Finally, its time for her to go and she accelerates through the intersection. Little did she know a man that had too many drinks would come flying through the red light. The last thing she saw was the headlights of his car. Drunk driving is a heartbreaking occurrence. Every day drunk drivers are imprisoned, either for traffic violations, dangerous driving, or accidents. People that make the mistake of drinking and driving not only put themselves in danger; they put all of the other people on the roads in danger. Innocent lives may be lost because of another’s

Advertisements posted on the website facesofdrunkdriving.com share multiple stories of people who were unexpectedly struck by drunk drivers. There was one story in particular that stood out to me more than the others and that was Jacqueline Saburido’s. This advertisement makes a powerful statement about how drunk driving can not only kill someone, but can also scar someone for life. The goal of the organization that posted this advertisement is to never drink and drive. It is not worth risking your life, someone else’s life, or putting anyone at risk of lifelong hardships and injuries. They present

The key to unlocking and understanding Marisol by Jose Rivera is in recognizing and examining the 3 different worlds Marisol works her way through over the course of the play. The main character, Marisol Perez, dies in the very first scene and spends the rest of the play trying to pass onto her impending afterlife. Additionally, Marisol is a play about Puerto Rican culture and religion and how it affects not only the life of an individual, but also the death of our main character.

Driving under the influence has affected many people's lives and families. Today I would like to talk to you about the problems of drinking and driving, and why it is a concern for all of us. Driving under the influence is one of the most common and dangerous situations you can put yourself or someone else in. The fact is that drinking and driving is a huge deal and can leave a long trail of broken dreams and hearts. If you drink and drive, not only are you putting yourself at risk, but your passengers and the pedestrians outside of your vehicle. According to the most recent statistics by the National Commission Against Drunk Driving states that 17,000 Americans die each year in alcohol- related traffic crashes and 600,000 Americans

Drunk driving is an issue that effects many people across our nation. People do not realize the affects alcohol can have on the body and mind that slow decision making while driving. This issue begins in the home. Children see their parents, or other adults figures, have a beer or a cocktail and get in the car. Thus, making it seem like it is acceptable to drink and drive. “One in three people will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetime” (MADD).

The facts are plain and simple, that alcohol and driving do not mix. About three in every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol related crash at some time in their lives. Every single injury and death caused by drunk driving is totally preventable. To curb this national travesty, concerned Americans need to examine the problems, the effects, and the solutions to drunk driving. First of all, America has had a problem with drunk driving since Ford perfected the assembly line. Alcoholism is a problem in and of itself, but combined with driving can have a wide range of effects. The consequences of this reckless behavior can include a first time DUI or licenses suspension; a small fender bender, or worst of all a deadly crash. Most

Despite the sufferance of victims, they often aren’t entirely blameless, as their poor decisions and irresponsibility is ultimately associated with their upsetting and newfound situation. Therefore victims like Fin O’Neil in The Story of Tom Brennan, who ultimately chose to travel in a car with drunken, inexperienced, and impulsive driver, it becomes questionable whether he is also culpable for his injuries. Despite Fin’s sobriety and awareness prior to the accident, this does not implicate him, however it becomes debatable whether the outcomes would be alike; with Fin’s extensive injuries and crash itself, if the decisions made on Fin’s behalf were different. Similarly in the story of ‘In My Little Town’, Leigh Charter Jnr also decides to travel with a drunk driver, regardless of the risks. Although his alertness was also compromised by alcohol, he holds some level of responsibility in his death. However, in ‘Shattered’, there are no obvious victims who made poor decisions, due to the situations isolation. Although, it is disputable whether the perpetrator; Peter Hodgkins’ friends who witnessed the accident could have altered the outcome. Though, it was voiced to Peter; “don’t throw a rock at a car, that’s stupid,” (‘Shattered’, 2011) this partly ousts some responsibility, especially due to their intoxication, which is similar to the other stories. However, responsibility is never fully removed from others, as it only takes one person, one conversation, and any one action during the lead to alter the outcome of July 21st 2007, in Kiama, New South

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

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.

So many lives are lost to individuals driving under the influence, no matter where they’re going or what’s important to drive when severely intoxicated it’s never an acceptable choice. Alaska will never be able to keep her promise or ever make it to her mother's grave he friends guilt and sadness build up that they could have stopped her and said she was way to drunk to drive but didn’t say a word. They would've never known that night would be their last moments together.

Students in Junior High who are going to High School in the following years are targeted for the ever popular ‘don’t drive impaired’ advertisements. They’re not told what to do in the situations where they’re not the impaired driver, but are in a compromised position. The topic of what to do when needed to call emergency services and how to handle the situation appropriately was significantly neglected. When or if the occurrence should arise, both students and adults should be properly educated on how to deal with is

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.

Analyzing the rhetorical appeals from three different authors published in three different journals on the topic of drunk driving, the different rhetorical strategies used by each to achieve their writing goals quickly became obvious. Both Stephen L. Brown, Prevalence and Effectiveness of Self-Regulatory Techniques Used to Avoid Drunk Driving, Journal of Behavioral Medicine, Volume 20, No. 1, 1997, and Elissavet Liourta and Pepijn Van Empelen, The importance of self-regulatory and goal-conflicting processes in the avoidance of drunk driving among Greek young drivers, Accident Analysis & Prevention, 40, 2008, introduce the drunk driving topic using emotionally charged attention getting sentences to gain an emotional response to the topic. Otherwise known as pathos. Brown begins his introduction with, “The incidence of drunk driving-related trauma is a major public health problem.” Liourta and Van Empelen begin their introduction with, “Drunk driving poses a serious health threat.” It is unlikely that either of these authors’ audiences wouldn’t share this belief. Contrary to this strategy, Itzhak Yanovitzky and Courtney Bennett, Media Attention, Institutional Response, and Health Behavior Change, The Case of Drunk Driving, 1978 – 1996, Communication Research, Volume 26, No. 4, August 1999, begin their introduction with the logical appeal of, “Past research in the area of public health communication has primarily focused on evaluating the extent to which individual exposure to