The Conviction Of Drunk 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

The legal consequences of drunk driving are also severe. The more a person drinks, the more their ability to make important decisions wear down and becomes impaired. After even just one drink a person can lose the ability to operate a vehicle. At certain parts in the state of intoxication, it becomes illegal to drive a car and if you get caught it can possible lead to fines, or even imprisonment. The legal limit of alcohol you can consume changes from state to state, but the penalty of driving under the influence is always severe. Getting arrested and maybe being forced to sleep in a drunk tank is just some of the problems you also have to carry the humiliation and the shame of being caught and that person might just end up with their name written up in the local news paper. Alcoholism is a disease and it can make you do some things you would not want to and to repeat you're past mistakes. More than one-third of drives arrested for intoxication are repeat offenders. Drivers with a prior DUI offense have a much higher likelihood to be in a fatal

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.

Alcohol affects countless individuals these days. Mostly everyone can think of a loved one or a friend who drinks, and sadly, maybe one who drinks and drives. Society would think strict laws from hefty fines and license suspension would teach the right lesson for drunk drivers. So many drunken drivers go unnoticed and are never pulled over. License suspension is not the answer to solving this issue. A drunk driver who receives more than one DUI has to pay not only a hefty penalty, but likely a lawyer and a taxi since they no longer have their license to get around. Anger, depression and lack of money are only going to make this person drink more, especially if there is an addiction. This harsh treatment is not the proper fix to this ongoing issue. Suspending a driver’s license for life after receiving a DUI charge generates countless negative effects and demonstrates more harm than good.

Simultaneously, accidents involving automobiles without a doubt are devastating. How would one feel if a loved one was killed in a collision due to an intoxicated driver? Wouldn’t the individual want to do something about it? The death of the Candy Lightner’s daughter lead to her development of Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) and the 1984 National Minimum Drinking Age Act. This act gave full federal highway funds only to states that set the minimum age to purchase or consume alcohol at twenty-one years (Sanghavi). Once all states raised their MLDA to twenty-one years, drunk-driving accidents and deaths decreased. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the reduction in traffic fatalities due to the legal drinking age of twenty-one prevented 846 deaths in 1997 and prevented a total of 17,359 deaths since 1975 (Balkin 168). This single statistic shows that automobile accidents have substantially decreased in response to the authorization of the National Minimum Drinking Age Act. In addition, the average teenager earns their drivers license at the age of seventeen. This being said, allowing a young driver with only one years experience (excluding a learners permit) to legally consume alcohol would surely be an irresponsible decision. Most people know

The penalties for drinking and driving are ineffective in many ways. Driving while intoxicated is America's most frequently committed violent crime( DeYoung 989). According NCADD, Nation Commission Against Drunk Driving, a chronic drunk driver drives intoxicated over 1,000 times before being caught. A chronic drunk driver does not respond to the law enforcement, the social ethics, and the message sent by society against driving drunk. Given the highly disproportionate role that these people play in drunk driving incidents, injuries, and fatalities, it would be wise to put our focus on them. Chronic drunk drivers only make up a small percentage of the drivers, but they are responsible for nearly all accidents. Studies show that 21-34 year olds make up for more than half of all the fatal driving accidents (R.E. green

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.

There have been many cases of injuries due to drinking and driving. Whether it had to do with the driver being drunk and getting injured, or being the one affected by the drunk driver. There have even been laws that have been implemented to make it harder to get away with drinking and driving. There are also many resources a driver who is drinking can think of to avoid drinking and driving. Drinking and driving is extremely bad, especially if a person is thinking about operating vehicle. Drunk drivers need to be educated on the repercussions

DUI deaths remain at 30% despite a overall drop in crashes (CDC 1). Not only are people killed and injured but the cost economic is high. “DUI crashes are also a significant economic burden to communities, with societal costs estimated to be as high as $59 billion annually, which is 21% of the total annual economic cost ($277 billion) associated with MVC-related injury”. (Bingham, et al. 1034). The Bingham, et al group studied the trends and made projections that in the time of fifteen years, and they found that 85% of DUI deaths and injuries could be prevented if drunk drivers were not able to actually be able to drive drunk. That would be almost 60,000 deaths and 1.25 million injuries as well as $342 billon saved (Bingham, et al 1035). The roads would be safer for

Drunk driving could be stopped with minimal effort if specific rules and actions were implemented to stop intoxicated people from getting behind the wheel. Installing breathalyzers in all cars new and old should be a mandatory thing for the safety of others you might harm. If all cars did have breathalyzers it would stop anybody that tries to drink and drive because your car won't start if you are intoxicated.Obtaining your license after a D.U.I shouldn’t be as simple as waiting a certain period you need to prove that a lesson has been learned and you aren't going to just do it again. Designated drivers should be put into place at events and private parties it could be like a bus specifically for drunk people as a means of getting home safe.

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

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

People tend to drive while intoxicated because they believe that they are capable of safely getting to their destination. However, when driving while intoxicated they are not only putting themselves in danger, but also others. There are various laws that are in place to stop individuals from driving while they are drunk. This includes being jailed, license suspended, or a large ticket. To stop people from being in this situation there are various companies that will pick up people who are intoxicated and get them home safely. I believe that these laws and privileges have decreased people from driving while intoxicated, but there are still people that drive while drunk. I do not believe that there are any other laws that could be put into place to completely stop this from occurring. The current laws are appropriate. There was an individual that worked with me that was arrested for driving while intoxicated. Due to this charge her license was suspended, she had to take a certain amount of hours of classes, and paid an extensive amount of

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.

Most adults enjoy having a drink or two, especially during the weekend, however a drink or two may turn into more and when the drinkers picks his or her car key to head home after drinking, he or she is not only putting his or her life in danger but also several people lives as well. By jailing drunk drivers on first offence, they would less likely to drink and drive again, resulting in less drunk driving accidents. Therefore drunk drivers will less likely commit the offence again due to the harsh punishment imposed on him or her on first occasion. Not only will jailing drunk drivers on first offence saves lives, but it will prevent others from committing the same others. The harsher punishment for the offense, leess people are likely to drive while intoxicated because they do not want to suffer the consequences of the punishment. Therfore, if someone gets imprisoned due to drunk driving , they might inform others that drinking and driving is not worth doing, hereby encouraging them to put the car key aside until the alcohol wears off completely. Therefore a harsher