Reduce Alcohol-Impaired Driving

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

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

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

This experimental study is being done to better understand the effectiveness of anti-drinking and driving advertisements on university-aged students. “Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among 16 to 25 year olds, and alcohol and/or drugs are a factor in 55% of those crashes” (Madd, 2013). Increasing the effectiveness of anti-drinking and driving advertisements could be a solution to this critically high mortality rate in young people. The main purpose of this study is to better understand the effect of positive and negative anti-drinking and driving advertisements within different settings and different amounts of times.

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.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, drunk driving fatalities increased by nearly 5% from 2011 to 2012. This trend is moving in the opposite direction that it should be. The NHTSA also reports that, on average, somebody is killed in a drunk driving accident every 53 minutes. Every 2 minutes, somebody will be injured by a drunk driver. It is not uncommon that those injured are sober, and mere victims of another motorist’s poor decision to drive under the influence of alcohol. My best friends father was driving home, sober, from a work function in May of 2007. A driver with a Blood Alcohol Content of .281 struck his vehicle. The legal limit for BAC is .08. My friend’s father was killed in the accident. While I did not know the family at the time, I can see the effects this tragedy has on the family today, seven years later.

Drinking and driving is a high epidemic now at days. Drinking and driving can be stopped by letting everyone know the risk your taking when getting behind the wheel while intoxicated. Having more check points on during the holidays, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturday nights when most of the general public like to go out and relive stress. Having these set up during the busiest nights can help prevent accidents like hit and runs, crashing into a pole, crashing into a person, and not ending up in the hospital. Doing this and telling people to take cabs home can help parents sleep better at night. No one ever wants to get the phone call that a brother, sister, and close friends got into an accident or that their being hospitalized due to an accident.

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.

Every single injury and death caused by drunk driving is totally preventable. The proportion of alcohol-impaired drinking and driving crashes has dropped dramatically over time. But there are still far too many such preventable crashes. So in spite of great progress, alcohol-impaired drinking and driving remains a serious problem. It tragically effects many victims

The biggest solution to me that would prevent drunk drivers from taking the wheel is ignition interlock devices. They assist in preventing a driver from operating the vehicle if their BAC is over 0.15% to 0.20% depending on the jurisdiction. (Driving laws) Tricking the ID on the devices can be very difficult and unlikely, but if one is feeling bold and tries it there will be major consequences if the person is caught. I aim to have these automatically stored in all the new models of cars that are being produced while also getting them installed to people cars now. The price to install these now are one hundred dollars to install and ranges from fifty to a hundred dollars a month for leasing. (Driving laws) I am positive that if we get more

Driving under the influence of alcohol has affected and devastated countless people’s lives. Driving under the influence is one of the most dangerous situations you can put yourself or someone else into. The evidence against driving while intoxicated is massive and it has left a long trail of broken dreams and lives. If you drink and drive, not only do you possibly put yourself at risk, but your passengers and pedestrians, and other people on the roads. According to the most recent statistics by the National Commission Against Drunk Driving is that 17, 000 Americans die each year in alcohol-related traffic crashes and 600,000 Americans are injured. (National Commission Against Drunk Driving, 2003). That’s an average of one fatality every

“Have one drink for the road” was, until recently, a commonly used phrase in American culture. It has only been within the past 20 years that as a nation, we have begun to recognize the dangers associated with drunk driving (Sutton 463). According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, this year 519,000 people, or one person per minute, will be injured in alcohol-related accidents. 10,839 people will die in drunk-driving crashes this year – that is one death every 50 minutes. The heartbreaking part is, every injury and lost life due to driving after drinking can be prevented. Drinking while driving “accidents” are not merely “accidents.” Getting in a vehicle after consuming alcohol, which severely affects the function of

The best way to reduce “drunk driving” is to raise the legal limit of B.A.C. (blood alcohol content) for sobriety. Thanks to the overzealous efforts of M.A.D.D. (mothers against drunk driving) Tennessee legislatures have been repeatedly forced to reduce the B.A.C. limit. Currently the limit is so low that the average person is in danger of failing a breathalyzer after only 1 drink. One drink (a double-shot of Jack Daniels & Coke) is barely enough to give the average person a buzz much less impair their ability to drive. Nonetheless, that 1 drink is enough to get you arrested for D.U.I. if you happen to get stopped at a roadblock check point on a Saturday night. This unfair standard has only made the number of drunk driving incidents increase