Drunk Driving

Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities were 1,028 in 2008 for the state of California (Century Council). Of those deaths, 68% of the drivers were considered “Hardcore Drunk Drivers”; drivers who had a BAC level of 0.15+ (Century Council). Unfortunately, the drivers who got behind the wheel of those vehicles now have to deal with the fact that they slaughtered a person(s), because they made the choice to drive their car when they knew they had consumed alcohol.

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.

A girl by the name of McKay was out at a bar late one night. She had way too much to drink and was not thinking straight. McKay made the bad decision of stepping into her car at 12:30 a.m. She then crossed a highway when she smashed into another car, with her speed set at 105 km/hr. In that moment, driving impaired cost the life of a husband, a wife, a five-year-old daughter, and two-year-old son (Mcadam, 2016). Unfortunately, this is not the first time people were killed from drunk driving, and it is certainly not the last unless there are harsher consequences. It is said that 2016 might go down as the worst year for drunk driving deaths. There are approximately twenty-eight people who are killed from drunk driving each day (Brennan, 2016). Drunk drivers deserve worse punishments because they bring serious danger to cities all around the world.

In 2013, 10,076 individuals died in alcohol-related crashes where at least one driver was found with a blood alcohol content (BAC) equal or greater than 0.08% grams per deciliter the legal limit. This has a significant impact for public health. To reduce alcohol-related crash fatalities, several suggestions were made based on the evidence found from the 2012 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey (BRFSS). The aforementioned suggestions include all states having a primary seatbelt law, increasing sobriety checkpoints, strictly enforcing the legal BAC levels, increasing the alcohol tax, requiring ignition locks for all persons convicted of DUI/DWI, and proper enforcement of underage drinking

Driving under the influence is one of the deadliest outcomes of underage drinking. Though underage drinking is already a major issue, data supports that if the legal age to consume alcohol was lowered then underage drinking would increase greatly. A recent study found that higher legal drinking ages are associated with lower traffic accident rates” (“Should ”). The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimated that keeping the legal drinking age at 21, decreased the number of fatal traffic accidents for 18- to 20-year-olds by 13 percent and saved approximately 27,052 lives from 1975-2008 (“Underage”). Furthermore, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that, on average, alcohol is a factor in the deaths of 4,358

Imagine waking up one day and realizing the one person who you love dearly has a severe drinking problem. What about finding out that a fellow friend or family member had their life taken from them because someone made the choice to drive after drinking! What if your child’s life was abruptly ended because their friend decided it was cool to drive after having a few beers. Well the fact of the matter is drinking and Driving is one of the biggest killers of many young Americans these days.

“In 2001, more than half a million people were injured in crashes where police reported that alcohol was present — an average of one person injured approximately every 2 minutes” (Blincoe qtd. in MADD main). “In 2002, an estimated 17,419 people died in alcohol–related traffic crashes—an average of one every 30 minutes. These deaths constitute 41 percent of the 42,815 total traffic fatalities [in America]” (NHTSA qtd. in MADD main). From these statistics, it is clear to see that drunk driving is a serious issue that harms thousands of innocent American citizens. Although there are many organizations that address the issue of drinking and driving, MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, is the most

The purpose of this paper is to make it clear that there needs to be stricter drunk driving laws and penalties. The impact of driving under the influence (DUI) has a significant risk to the safety of the public. Driving under the influence of alcohol or while intoxicated (DWI) is not a new dilemma, it has been around since the invention of the automobile. Driving needs a considerable amount of ability, such as alertness, concentration, clear vision, and reaction time. However, when a person is intoxicated, the skill set that is used for safe driving becomes greatly debilitated, leading to an elevated risk for car accidents. Driving drunk has caused many alcohol-related deaths and injuries. These disasters could be avoided with harsher

For a minute imagine that a choice you made took someone’s life. How could you live knowing that you took away someone’s loved one…someone’s daughter or son, husband or wife, mother or father. An innocent person paid the ultimate price for a bad decision you made. In the United States, a person dies every 51 minutes due to the actions of a drunk driver. Every day, alcohol impaired drivers are responsible for an average of 28 deaths. Understanding that it can happen to you and that choosing not to drive buzzed or impaired is the only responsible decision to make. Drinking and driving even just one time can be the biggest mistake you could ever make.

Drunk driving is a serious issue, and there should be more severe consequences. The U.S. is lenient on the penalties for drunk driving compared to other countries. “Countries with strict drunk driving penalties have a far lower incidence of accidents” (Valenti 1). What is huge that U.S. does not have, and other countries do, is the

One of the major problems associated with drinking and driving under the influence of alcohol is the amount of deaths and injuries that is related in car crashes after being behind the wheel of a vehicle. When many teens and young adults are on

Alcohol in large doses can be very detrimental to not only the user but to people around him/her. For example, if a man was to go to a club and drink a lot of alcohol, in which his body cannot withhold; his heavy intakes will lead to dizziness, vomiting, and impaired breathing and in extreme cases, unconsciousness and coma that can lead to death. According to Caron, underage drinking is a leading public health problem in the United States. Each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of drinking: 1,900 from motor vehicle accidents, 1,600 from homicides, 300 from suicides, and hundreds from other injuries such as falls, burns, and drowning. This shows that anyone on the road near an intoxicated driver is in grave danger as they can be killed or badly injured in an instant as the drunk driver has slight control over anything they are doing. Many reckless kills have been made by drunken drivers/people over the years resulting in many families to pay the price of losing a family member for no relevant reason at all but making alcohol increase death rates that could be provoked by intruding prohibition.

There is still a large number of traffic fatalities involving alcohol and this is not acceptable. “Every two hours, three people are killed in alcohol-related highway crashes. The consequences of drinking and driving are arrests, property damage, injuries, and thousands of deaths each year” (Chambers 1). In 2010, there were about four million U.S adults reported for driving under the influence. “Alcohol-related highway crashes accounted for 13,365 deaths in 2010, and to top that off, the alcohol-related accidents cost Americans an

“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.

But there are costs for the use of alcoholic beverages, and those costs are enormous. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that in 1998, 16,189 people in the United States were killed in crashes involving alcohol alone (not cocaine or speed, just alcohol), and 1,058,990 more were injured. Economically, this resulted in an estimated $45 billion just from the direct results of such accidents. Indirectly, $75 billion is estimated to be lost in reduced quality of life. With all the messages telling people to drink responsibly and to use a designated driver or taxi, it seems that people will do what they want to do, whether it may kill someone or not. Can we honestly say that