Drinking and Driving Essay

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

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 instance of drunk driving, the actions of the drunk driver are related to the safety of the drivers within their proximity and therefore affects not only the driver but others as well. Our previous moral experiences allow us to determine what the intentions of the drunk driver might be. Some drivers may choose to drive under the influence of alcohol because they have had an emergency that requires them to be at a certain place and they do not have the means to reach to their destination except for driving themselves. In this case, the context becomes complicated and intricate. However, if the driver is risking his own and other drivers’ safety, it becomes clear that their intentions are based on nonchalance and disregard for others.

This pattern often encourages people to drink more to keep the buzz going." ( Net Biz Mentor ). When people get like that they usually get a little bolder and want to do normal tasks and routines like driving a motorized vehicle. The effects of alcohol result in poor coordination, slurred speech, double vision, decrease of self-control, lost of consciousness and maybe even death.

Driving under the influence is measured by a person’s blood alcohol level (BAC). BAC is determined by the concentration of alcohol in the bloodstream. Individual counties and states have their own legal level on blood alcohol percentages that they measure a person’s

"After drinking people usually feel pleasure and become talkative at first. These feelings are usually replaced by drowsiness as the alcohol is eliminated from the body, and the drinker may then become withdrawn. This pattern often encourages people to drink more to keep the buzz going." ( Net Biz Mentor ). When people get like that they usually get a little bolder and want to do normal tasks and routines like driving a motorized vehicle. The effects of alcohol result in poor coordination, slurred speech, double vision, decrease of self-control, lost of consciousness and maybe even death.

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

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.

It only takes one alcoholic beverage to lessen your ability to respond to things that happen abruptly while you are driving. Some effects of alcohol can include blurry or double vision, impaired thoughtfulness and slowed reactions. The amount of alcohol that one has consumed can be measured by the amount someone has in their blood. BAC is an acronym for blood alcohol concentration. Once you take a drink, there is no way to guess what your BAC is. In Canada, the maximum legal BAC fo is 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood (0.08). Driving with BAC over 0.08 is a criminal offence. The Zero BAC law means that certain drivers cannot have any presence of alcohol in their blood while they drive. These are all drivers age under 21 year of age, if caught your driver 's license will be suspended on the spot for 24 hours and if convicted, your driver 's license will be suspended again for at least 30 days and you will receive a $60-$500 fine.

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

“At a BAC of 0.08 percent, muscle coordination is poor and the driver will have problems concentrating and controlling the vehicle, will have short-term memory loss, will have problems processing information (for example, signal detection), and will show impaired reasoning and depth perception.” (Wulffson,

Another concern is the behavior of adolescent binge drinkers. In other research it is shown that binge drinkers were more likely to engage in risky driving, such as speeding, running yellow lights, racing other cars, and passing in no passing lanes (Marcotte, T. D., Bekman, N. M., Meyer, R. A., & Brown, S. A. (2012). They also participate more in distractive activities that take their focus away from the road such as changing the station or music on the car stereo system and texting or dialing on their cell phones. In order to reduce the fatalities associated with adolescents and driving under the influence, Graduate Driver Licensing has been implemented in several U.S. States. With the use of Graduated Driver Licensing this would help lower the percentage of fatal crashes by way of new drivers being required to

In the case of alcohol, a drunk driver's level of intoxication is typically determined by a measurement of blood alcohol content or BAC. A BAC measurement in excess of a specific threshold level, such as 0.05% or 0.08%, defines the criminal offense with no need to prove impairment. In some jurisdictions, there is an aggravated category of the offense at a higher BAC level, such as 0.12%. In most countries, anyone who is convicted of injuring or killing

Law enforcement officers throughout the state of Texas regularly stop drivers on suspicion of drunk driving. Often, such stops lead to arrests and DUI charges for motorists. In 2011 alone, more than 87,000 people were arrested and charged with alcohol-related offenses, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Sometimes, those charged with DUI may have previously posted about their activities, or feel the need to share their experiences after their arrests, on social media. Doing so, however, may have an adverse effect on their case.

I have trouble seeing at night when I drive, I’m not really supposed to drive at night because my mind plays tricks on me and I see things that aren’t there and I can’t see the signs that are ahead of me, and many more. My eye doctor says that I'll probably need glasses in the nearest future...that was 4 years ago haha but I mean I can see fine but the fact is that I can’t see long distance is kinda hard for me because in order to pass the permit test t get your driving permit is you have to pass the eye test in which i barely passed but I think I’ll be ok long as I don’t drive long long distance in the dark or else I can’t really see the road. The longest i've driven in the dark was from Greenview to Weed and it was pouring rain and slippery