Do Blue Laws Save Lives

Blood Alcohol Content The thought of alcohol being involved in fatal crashes brings about an emotional response. Recently, there has been a movement based on emotion rather than logic to change a certain drinking and driving law. This involves lowering the Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) from 0.10% to 0.08%

Results: As we are able to gather from both of these graph which came from U.S. Department of Transportation. We are currently slightly down on DUI’s, but the part that I have found to be even more shocking in a good way that fatalities not involving alcohol has drop almost 10,000. While this graph only shows the amount of crashes it does not put it in as detailed as the next graph does.

California has done its part by enacting most of the known effective DUI countermeasures. However, there is still much to be done and applying other countermeasures implemented in other states, such as the lower per se BAC level for repeat offenders, might be of benefit to California. The study of this report shows that the California Zero Tolerance Law has had a small marginal effect on the number of underage drinking drivers in fatal crashes. After the implementation of the law, a reduction in driving after drinking and alcohol-related crashes has been evident. However, a question remains as to whether a stronger enforcement can produce more substantial results. Nonetheless, there is evidence to suggest that legal changes have produced declines

The United States has the world’s highest MLDA, and many citizens are content to keep it that way. Political interest groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), who had a hand in changing the law, insist that a higher drinking age protects communities. They focus on the decline in drunk driving accidents and deaths— something they attribute to a lack of intoxicated under-21s on the road. Recently, MADD has been criticized for stepping away from it’s original purpose and turning toward a “neo-prohibitionist” outlook that demonizes alcohol, rather than drunk driving. Still, MADD members and other advocates of a 21 year MLDA often point out that death rates due to car accidents for 18 to 20 year olds have decreased since the MLDA act was passed, but this can be countered with the observation that this loss of lives has just been delayed a few years, now showing up in the 21 to 24 age bracket. It would seem that newly-legal drinkers are the ones causing accidents, no matter the age.

Corey Friedman’s Lawmakers Target Drunk Drivers, appeared in North Carolina’s “Wilsons Daily Times” on February 18, 2013. In his essay, Friedman, explains new bills and laws that are trying to get passed by North Carolina’s congress. They will target and prevent drunk driving across the state by developing harsher laws and consequences for those found guilty of these offenses. Friedman uses many different perspectives on the issue by restating various North Carolina state representatives, and various group advocates among Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). These many opinions on the new bills proposed to the North Carolina state legislature proved significant recognition of the issue by many across the state along with Friedman.

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.

Drinking and Driving has been around just as long as drugs have, yet drunk driving takes more lives than drugs do per year. Last year in 2014, 9967 people were killed in car crashes. There was 3464 cocaine related deaths during the same period. Stricter drinking and driving laws were only put into law after the Carollton bus disaster happened. In 1988 a drunk driver driving the wrong way in Kentucky hit a school bus where 27 people died and dozens more were injured. In the aftermath, Mothers Against Drunk Driving was started and throughout the 80’s drunk driving became a hot topic. At that time alcohol related accidents totaled around 100,000 a year. Deaths related to illegal drug overdose, AIDS, or violence associated with the illegal drug trade totaled up to 21, 000 per year. Sentencing for drunk drivers typically only spend two days in jail the first time and up to ten days the second. Drunk driving carries a far greater risk of violent death than the use or sale of illegal drugs, but the social response to drunk driver’s generally emphasized keeping the person functional and in society, while attempting to respond to the dangerous behavior through treatment and counseling. People charged with drug offenses, are typically charged with felonies and sentenced to prison. At that time there were not first and second chances with a few days in jail like it was for drinking and driving. One of the main reasons for this disparity is that white men account for the majority of

LOWER BLOOD ALCOHOL CONCENTRATION LIMITS 1 Lower BAC Limits 7 Lower Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) Limits Miss Pounsberry Vernice P. Briddell-Sewell Delaware Technical & Community College Abstract This writing is on the many arguments that arise about the blood alcohol concentration limits around the country. Should the limits be lowered, keep them

One can say that the modern movement for holding drivers who take to the road under the under influence of alcohol was created by the death of fourteen year old Cari Lightner on the third of May 1980 in Fair Oaks California. She and her friend were on their way to a local carnival walking in the bike lane where she was hit by a driver who had swerved into the lane the impact threw her 125 feet. It was later revealed that the driver had only minutes before had been drinking in a local bar. Disturbingly he already had three convictions for what was then called drunk driving and did not stop after hitter her. Even with rapid medical intervention Cari was unable to survive due to multiple traumatic injuries.

This number is equivalent to one third of all automobile accidents across the United States. The Midwest region of the United States had the highest amount of individuals who were driving under the influence and the highest percentage of people who admitted to binge drinking at 16.5 percent. These numbers reflect a problem with drunk driving but they in no way reflect that alcohol should not be sold on Sundays. Michael Lovenheim from the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management states that “Blue Laws”, which are laws prohibiting the sale of alcohol on Sundays, first started in observance of the Sabbath on Sundays. These laws have been a consistent law in 14 different states to include: Georgia, North Carolina and of course Oklahoma. This was later assumed by blue law proponents that the restriction of alcohol sales on Sundays reduce the number of drunk driving incidents within their individual state. In an analysis completed by viewing the Fatal Accident Reporting System, it is shown that on any given day of the week, the numbers of alcohol related crash fatalities remained consistent throughout the week. In fact, the day with the highest number of fatality accidents was

Drunk Driving as a Social Issue How much longer will we be forced to endure the pain and atrocities due to the carelessness of drunk driving? Drunk driving has been a problem in the United States since the introduction of automobiles; however, it did not become an important social issue until the 1980’s. At that time the political atmosphere defined crime in terms of personal choice and individual responsibility. Drunk driving was defined as a problem located within individuals. Drunk driving is illegal in every state. It is not only illegal, but unsafe to operate an automobile if you are under the influence of alcohol.

In the United States of America over 10,000 people die each year from accidents involving an alcohol-impaired driver and according to CBS news, that number is on the rise. Drunk driving is the criminal act of driving while being impaired, alcoholically. When alcohol is consumed it is absorbed

Enforcing Drunk Driving Laws In the United States, driving under the influence of alcohol is a major problem as it accounts for a high number of road fatalities. It is a criminal offense for a person to drive under the influence of alcohol in almost all countries in the world. Nations impose penalties for drunk driving; however, they vary widely from states to states. Nevertheless, many countries seem to come to an agreement that drunk driving claims many lives in a year, which is intolerable. For instance, in 2008 alone, in the US, more than 11000 lives perished in the road carnage due to drivers driving under the influence of alcohol (Grant 16). Therefore, the government should employ or enforce stricter laws towards driving under the influence, to reduce road fatalities.

Drunk Driving Disarray While media never fails to show the unfavorable and dramatic effects of drunken driving, what they do not seem to bring light to is the details. The media often paints pictures in societies brain that all drunk driving is the same, but that is not the case. Organizations are pushing the government to lower the legal level of intoxication from .08 to .05; claiming that with cause a decrease in the amount of drunk driving accidents in the United State, but according to Ted Gregory, “Less than 1% of US traffic deaths are caused by a driver with a BAC of .05-.08” and “70% of drunken driving deaths involve a driver with a BAC of .15 or higher.” (par. 16). The current legal punishments for Driving Under the Influence (DUI) crimes are justified and appropriate.

Drunk Driving is one of the largest problems in today's society. Have you ever heard or seen of someone that has made a bad decision after consuming alcohol? In this paper I will tell you all kinds of things about drunk driving and what could help prevent it, i'm going to tell you what happens if you get caught drinking and driving, i'm going to tell you how many people a year get killed from drunk driving on normal days and even holidays. I'm also going to tell you how it affects everyone, such as the intoxicated driver, the police and the victim's family.