You would think that if a person gets pulled over, arrested, gets his/her license suspended and gets court ordered to pay 250+ dollars in fines, that they would never get behind the wheel under the influence again and endanger someone else’s life. Wrong. According to a 2007 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety study over half of drivers arrested for drunk driving in the nation are repeat offenders. All states have adopted 21 as the legal drinking age. Two-thirds of the states have now passed Administrative License Revocation (ALR) laws, which allow the arresting officer to take the license of drivers who fail or refuse to take a breath test. All states have now lowered the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit from .10 to .08 percent for adults, and all states have passed Zero Tolerance laws which prohibit drivers under twenty-one from having any amount of alcohol in their blood system. The penalties have increased for drinking and driving, yet the repeated offenders percentages haven’t decreased. Thus proving, what the laws are doing now is not working and they need to be raised. Going back to the purpose of punishment, if people keep doing the same thing, than the consequences before did not faze them and need to be stricter.
Paying a fine and receiving a few days in jail will not prevent a person from driving under the influence once they are released from jail. Drunken drivers continue to be a major safety threat on America’s roadways. Despite myriad efforts by state, federal and local governments, along with improvements in vehicle technology, about 10,000 people die every year on the nation’s roads and highways because people who have been drinking choose to drive (TEIGEN,
Drunk driving has affected every generation in a variety of negative ways. Whether an innocent young driver is hit by an older drunk driver, or vice versa, these accidents should never occur. Along with these accidents comes changes in people’s lives. Even if something extremely traumatic doesn’t happen, lives will still change. Driving while intoxicated unfortunately causes too many preventable accidents, injuries and deaths. In order to avoid these unnecessary occurrences, I feel a license should be permanently suspended after the second conviction of driving while intoxicated.
Aa to begin with is a spiritual process, granted everyone who attends Alcoholics Anonymous meetings don’t all believe in god or some higher power but they all subscribe to some spiritual nature. My first reservation is the fact that if someone has strong enough faith and believes then who’s can say that them believing in god wont help them with the drinking problem or any problem that they may have. Secondly Alcoholics Anonymous does not work for everyone so it s very subjective to say just by following the 12 step process and abstaining from drinking will curb or cure you from a drinking problem. The fact is that everyone who tried Alcoholics Anonymous doesn’t succeed so it is presumptuous to say that following directing the intended results will follow. with directions comes several variables that can hinder or impede the desired process. For example some people cant follow directs to bake a cake so accounting that they have a real addiction issue with alcohol, and a rule tells you not to drink doesn’t mean you will follow it or even give it a second
The worst part of drunk driving is the deaths caused by it. “Almost half of drivers killed in crashes who tested positive for drugs also had alcohol in their system” ("State Alcohol Cost Fact Sheets Document The Costs Of Impaired Driving For Each State .").“In 2014, 9,967 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (31%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States” ("Impaired Driving: Get the Facts."). This means that 9,967 families had to deal the grief of losing a loved one because of a stupid decisions. This decision is an uneducated guest of
This is an injustice and a slap in the face to the families who have been affected by some idiot who knew the dangers of getting behind the wheel after a night out drinking. Every day people are killed by someone who knew they should not be behind the wheel but did it anyway. The same thing that is said over and over again, "I'm okay to drive" even though they can't walk a straight line to their vehicle. Over 19,000 people die every year and over 20,000 people are seriously injured in an accident involving alcohol. The laws have to be changed and we need harsher punishments in place for anyone who gets a DUI. The DUI laws have gotten better in some states but it's still not good enough. People with multiple offenses who are intoxicated, get behind the wheel of a car and kills a person only has to serve anywhere from 3-7 years in jail. There are stories on the news all the time talking about some accident where a family was killed by a person that already had several DUI arrests in the past. There are even people out there who have as many as 4-5 DUI arrests and are still allowed to drive a vehicle. It is one thing to have a couple beers or shots but when someone drinks for hours, is way over the legal limit and gets behind the wheel of a vehicle they should not be given a slap on the wrist. If it happens a second time your license should be suspended permanently and if you get caught again you should spend a long time in jail. Driving is not a part of our rights it is a privilege and when it is abused like anything else it should be taken
Fatal alcoholic crashes declined by over 300 fatalities from 2005 to 2010, and that number continues to decline (“Alcohol-Impaired Driving”). Also, 66% of people convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol will never be convicted of a DUI again. Not everyone that has a BAC above the legal limit experiences the same effects that alcohol has on the body. It is not shocking that habitual drinkers can become tolerant of the effects of alcohol. Studies show that habitual drinkers do not display as many symptoms of intoxication as those who do not consume alcohol regularly. It takes 5 or more alcoholic drinks within a two-hour time period to raise a male’s BAC to above the legal limit, and it only takes 4 drinks to raise a female’s BAC to .08 or higher. Because habitual drinkers do not experience the same symptoms as others, some people do not realize their level of intoxication when they choose to drive. With this in mind, not everyone that has a BAC above the legal limit is incapable of driving safely, and not everyone that has a BAC below the legal limit is capable of safely driving. Imprisoning someone because they have a BAC above the legal limit does not always mean they were driving recklessly and is not necessary (Lapham).
Drunk driving is a serious crime that affects many people because out of any and all accidents that are car related one-third of them involve drunk drivers, not only that, but underage drinking and driving has become a problem, and the legal age to drink is set at twenty-one. Let's say that in the future the government decides it's okay to drink and drive, the percentage of crashes will increase wildly. Even though you still are not allowed to drink at twenty-one, it won't stop anyone, especially since it would be legal to drink and drive. They could get off with a warning instead of a license suspension, and if that's the only consequence who's to say they won't keep doing it and just hoping to not get caught. As you can see this problem has
These changes must be heavily enforced on repeat offenders as a result of their negligence of the law on multiple occasions. “While you shouldn't be drinking and driving to begin with, you shouldn't be driving period if you're going to drive drunk over and over again. These people continue to get off with comparative slaps on the wrists” (Kursky). As a result, people who have been convicted more than once for a DUI must lose their license for a period of time. With longer license suspensions and confiscation of vehicles, individuals will be much less likely to even fathom drinking and driving. Not only would they be unable to drive their vehicle for some time, they would not even have a vehicle to drive in the first place. Transportation on the road is an integral part in today’s world and the thought of being unable to travel anywhere is enough to deter any
Alcoholism is an addiction. People with an alcohol addiction cannot just put away the addiction because they were caught driving “Under the Influence”. Driving while impaired alters the driver’s practical senses, at the same time crippling there response time. This often leads to serious accidents involving innocent people. It has been proven that driving while impaired you have more of having an accident that cripples, kills and maims another person, possibly even yourself. It is a senseless and selfish act to drive while intoxicated. Habitual drunk drivers should not be able to get a hardship license because they are not responsible when it comes to not driving wile intoxicated. Persons who are found to be habitual drunk drivers should not be allowed to obtain a hardship license. They cannot be trusted to not drive while intoxicated.
Although, this program follows the twelve step program of Alcohol Anonymous, its primary outlook is to provide psychological and emotional support to each member through self-contributions and the ability to help others food addicts to achieve abstinence. It is not affiliated with any other diet or weight loss programs, treatment facilities or religious organizations. With that said, the twelve steps consist of admittance, believing, decision, searching, acceptance, readiness, humbling, changes, forgiveness, persistence, knowledge, and practice. Each of these steps is a psychological approach that each member must go through to overcome their addiction to food. There is no avoidance of a step.
Drinking and driving under the influence of alcohol today is a serious matter in the United States. While being under the influence of alcohol and drugs it is a fact that it is a major cause of injury and death of young adults in our world. Of all the major problems causing drinking and driving, one of the major problems is alcohol to the people in our world today. We are losing so many young teens and adults in accidents and crashes due to this and we should do something about it. The dangerous effects that drinking lots of alcohol and driving with it in your system is that It creates lots of health problems in your body. Let’s look closer at this problem and put a stop to it in our society today. Therefore, because drinking and driving in teens and young adults under the influence of alcohol leads to deaths and injuries, health problems not related to driving, and the monetary costs, we must stop being addicted to alcohol and other drugs when drinking and driving and start thinking about the others around us before getting behind the wheel.
Lee explains that even though offenders get punished, they still disregard the law: “Only until the time comes that we recognize that drunk driving should have serious consequences on the first offense (license taken away, car impounded, jail time, higher insurance rates) will we be able to reduce drunk driving and make ourselves safer” (Lee). As long as DUI punishment for first offenders remains the same, people will continue to ignore the law. If the government made stricter DUI laws, then people would think twice before driving under the influence. In an online newspaper at New Mexico Tech, an editor tries to convince a people that getting in vehicles while intoxicated puts lives in danger. In Victoria Carreon’s article, “The Social Consequences of Drinking and Driving,” she reminds her fellow students of what they should think about while drinking: “One tip is simply to not drive after drinking and to remember that even a small amount of alcohol can make a difference” (Carreon). A person’s BAC can become to high to drive by drinking as little as one beer. Lives lost in drunk driving can decrease if people under the influence would know whether or not they should drive.
Driving instructors, throughout the country, should start to emphasis the importance of drinking and how hazardous it is. Educating people about the consequences to drunk driving should be discussed so that it may change the minds of younger people throughout the country. Even with educating young drivers about drinking and driving, there will be some teens that still drink and drive. The majority of teenagers in car crashes are caused because of teenage drunk driving. Young drivers do not realize that not only drinking and driving is dangerous for them, but also other driver’s lives would be in danger too. In Young, Drunk, Dangerous, and Driving: Underage Drinking and Driving Research Findings points out that “50% have consumed alcohol while in the act of driving and almost seven of every ten youth have driven a car after having consumed a couple of drinks” (39). With this in mind Indiana, enforcements have cracked down on drunk drivers trying to eliminate most of them off the road. In the state of Indiana, the protocols for police officers have the authority to pull over any suspicious drunk drivers. Positive test results in drunk driving could lead to serious disciplinary actions, especially for young drivers. “You are considered to be over the limit in Indiana if you have a BAC of at least 0.08%,” according to Indiana DUI & DWI Laws & Enforcement. “If you’re younger than 21 years old, the limit is only 0.02%. Additionally, if your BAC is over
Driving under the influence (DUI) is considered to be a very serious offense in most states in the U.S. DUI poses risks not only for the driver in question but also for other drivers on the road, passengers, and pedestrians. When you receive a DUI, you need to know that it is a serious charge and it can have long-term consequences for you.