The Causes And Consequences Of Drunk Driving And Driving

The Prohibition Amendment took effect on January 16, 1920. The eighteenth Amendment outlawed the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcohol in the United States until it was repealed on December 5, 1933. The excessive amount of alcohol consumed primarily by men often resulted in violence, poor work performance, and wasteful spending of wages on alcohol, which were needed to support their families. Although the Prohibition Amendment did decrease alcohol-related felonies it created more organized crime and an increase of economic problems.

During the 1920’s there was an experiment in the U.S. “The Prohibition”, this experiment, made by the government, was written as the 18th amendment. The prohibition led to the bootlegging, increase in crimes, and gang wars.

It seems odd to me that people would get behind the wheel after drinking. However, that is what alcohol does. Our brains are altered with a false sense of security. Alcohol impairs our thinking, making us have irrational thoughts or views. Yet, I also believe that individuals who choose to drive drunk have been brought up in a home where they witnessed a parent drive a car after consuming an adult beverage. Giving them a false idea that “my parents have been doing it and they are fine” kind of attitude.

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

raise their minimum drinking age to 21. States that did not risked lowering the amount of

Converse to the ideals of 18 to 20 year olds, the federal government favors the current drinking age and deters states from lowering them. Between 1970 and 1982, 36 states lowered their individual drinking ages to 18, 19 or 20 (Searles). A major problem that occurred during those times was the “blood boarder” incidents. Teenagers living adjacent to states with lower drinking ages would cross the boarder to buy alcohol, then drive back under the influence. In order to prevent the increase in accidents and fatalities linked to these occurrences, the federal government (with significant lobbying from Mothers Against Drunk Driving) passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984. To ensure that all states complied with it, the federal government would cut 10% of highway funding to any state with a drinking age lower than 21 (Searles).

"The problem with drinking and driving is the mourning after", a very simile quote has such a huge meaning behind it, in my family's case we got off lucky. It was a late night, my father received the phone call, I don't think I've seen that look ever in his eyes the 18 years I've been alive. It was about his brother he had gotten in a very catastrophic accident after making the horrible choice to drink and drive. It seemed like the longest drive to Dallas which is where my uncle was airlifted to go into surgery. We arrived at the hospital and were told he was unconscious so I waited in the waiting room with my cousins to comfort them while my aunt and dad were in the room with my uncle. After sitting in the gloomy waiting room for what seemed life forever I decided to take my cousins home we stopped by to get food. His choice to drink and drive was a very bad one, he was unfit to make such a big choice while not in the correct state of mind he had alcohol in his system and lots of it, he had no right to endanger not only his life but every other person that was around him while he was driving. Statistics show that Texas is the leading state for drunk driving cases and Harris county alone had 362 deaths in 2015 alone, driving under the influence not only has physical damage that can be done there's the emotional side that people have to deal with and what the families go through, drunk driving has more effects than just what just meets the eye. Drunk drivers

I. Introduction: Starting in 1970 21 states reduced the minimum drinking age to 18. Another 8 reduced it to 19 or 20. However, these states noticed increases in alcohol-related fatalities among teenagers and young adults. As a result, of the 29 states that had lowered their drinking age, 24 raised the age again between 1976 and 1984. By 1984, only three states allowed 18-year-olds to drink all types of alcoholic liquor. The enactment of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 prompted states to raise their legal age for purchase or public possession of alcohol to 21 or risk losing millions in federal highway funds. The states who raised it were given highway funding by the

1984 brought change to the United States of American, but South Dakota did not want any part of it. In 1984, the United States passed a law saying that people needed to be 21 years of age to purchase and consume alcohol that was considered low point beer. In the years prior it was 19 years of age to purchase and consume low point beer that had 3.2% of alcohol. Any states that did not comply with the new law would hold five percent of their road funding from the Secretary of Transportation that would go toward rebuilding highways across America. If any states did not comply it the five percent rate jumped to ten percent each and every following year after.

Prohibition and United States Society in 1920's Prohibition was the legal ban on the manufacture and sale of alcohol. It was introduced in 1919 and was viewed as the answer to many of America's problems. It was thought that the end of alcohol in America would spark a new and greater society in America. People believed that it would reduce crime, drunkenness, violence and that it would reduce families in poverty because the men would not go out spending all the money on '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.

The United States’ minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) of twenty one is almost a perfect example of a policy with unrealistic expectations and serious unintended consequences. The current policy that the United States has in effect criminalizes youth who consume alcohol at less than twenty one years of age. Young adults are going to drink under twenty one, so why shouldn’t the United States lower the MLDA to eighteen? Following Prohibition in 1933, many states made their MLDA twenty one. During the 1960’s and 1970’s, many states lowered it to eighteen to match the drafting age (Alcohol Policy MD). President Reagan passed The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 which required all states to raise their minimum purchase and public

“Prohibition did not achieve its goals. Instead, it added to the problems it was intended to solve.” On 16th January 1920, one of the most common personal habits and customs of American society came to a halt. The eighteenth amendment was implemented, making all importing, exporting, transporting, selling and manufacturing of intoxicating liquors absolutely prohibited. This law was created in the hope of achieving the reduction of alcohol consumption, which in turn would reduce: crime, poverty,

Prohibition, under the Eighteenth Amendment was the Governments idea of illegalizing the consumption, production, and transportation of intoxicating liquors.

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.