The Problem Of Driving Under The United States

Drinking and driving is said to be the primary contributor to automotive related deaths. “By law, a driver is considered to be impaired by alcohol if his or her blood alcohol content is 0.08 percent or higher” (Holzmueller). As a matter of fact, “in 2010, about 86 percent of all fatalities alcohol-involved crashes were in cases where a driver or pedestrian had a BAC of .08 or higher” (“The Economic and Societal Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2010” 147). Laws and penalties have been created and applied in recent years that make it more difficult to get away with drinking and driving. If drivers are charged with alcohol-impaired driving, “they face suspension or revocation of their license” (Holzmueller).

How much longer will we be forced to endure the pain and atrocities due to the carelessness of drunk driving? Drunk driving has been a problem in the United States since the introduction of automobiles; however, it did not become an important social issue until the 1980’s. At that time the political atmosphere defined crime in terms of personal choice and individual responsibility. Drunk driving was defined as a problem located within individuals. Drunk driving is illegal in every state. It is not only illegal, but unsafe to operate an automobile if you are under the influence of alcohol.

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.

A DUI conviction is a permanent part of ones driving record. Even though alcohol related accidents are on the decline, statistics show that a drunk driver kills someone every forty-five minutes. More so, fifty to seventy percent of drunk drivers whose licenses are suspended continue to drive. In 2000, alcohol related crashes cost the public $114.3 billion dollars! Drunk driving carries with it serious penalties from the court system and car insurance companies. One moment of fun can turn into a lifetime of heartache and tragedy. Therefore, it is not worth the risk. Possible prevention measures and solutions are not only for the law enforcement, but for the public as well. Drunk drivers face a hardcore court system, which is intolerant of DUI. Stricter penalties such as automatic licenses revocation, mandatory jail sentencing, vehicle impounding, and licenses plate confiscating are just a few ways the judicial system is handling the DUI problem. Programs such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against Drunk Driving have led the way to bringing awareness to society. People need to be responsible and supervise their consumption to ensure that they do not drink too much. They have a moral and a legal responsibility to make sure of this. It is always best to have a designated driver. The most effective way people can prevent driving drunk is to make a personal decision not to drink

Although there are many commercials, ads, documentaries, seminars, etc. on the reasons why people should never drink and drive, you would be surprised how many people still get behind the wheel after having had more than just a drink or two. We might not realize it but every day, about 28 people in the United States die in car crashes that involve a drunk driver. This equals to one death every 51 minutes! It’s so sad because these statistics could be way better if people had a well thought out plan prior to going out drinking. There has been research found relating to Drinking and Driving Behaviors since this topic is now becoming more of an issue in this generation than it was in the past. For instance, Schell, Chan, and Morral (2006), found that some people who have a DUI record tend to have pretty high expectations of themselves even after having some drinks in their system (e.g., “I feel more relaxed when drinking"), so with that being said those people with higher confidence were the ones more likely to be engaged in drinking and driving activity. While intoxicated, we often don’t consider any negative consequences that can happen to us but as you’ll see on the news, on social media, in the newspapers, etc. driving while under the influence can be very dangerous and even fatal.

Introduction: long ago the government banned the ability to make alcohol. This has caused a huge uproar which then people started to boot legging, as more and more people started to drink in the safety of their own homes. After the government saw how people were protesting this new law, they decided that they should left the ban. Since then people were able to drink in public, which in return has created another issue, now that they are drunk at a bar, how do they get home. Rather than taking the safe option and utilize some of the state and local programs and call a tow truck, the Driver chooses to just drive how drunk. They think that it’s ok, since they do not have their full mind.

Drunk driving is considered a serious crime in every state. It is wrong, irresponsible and wastes many lives. People who abuse alcohol hurt everyone around them, endanger public safety, and create carnage on the nation's highways. There is nothing positive that can come out of drunk driving, so why do people do it? It is society's job to punish these menaces and try to take control of this out of control issue. America doesn't want to watch idly as hundreds of people are killed each day. We want to take a stand and let the world know that we may be the 'land of the free and the brave' but there is nothing brave or free about driving drunk. What should be done about this problem is debatable and certainly open to discussion, but the first

First and foremost, the legal blood alcohol content while driving in the U.S. is currently at .08%. This is relatively high compared to many countries. A research article on Science Daily reports that “More than 100 countries around the world have limits set at BAC 0.05 percent or below”. Some may argue that this limit of .08% needs to be reduced, while some see it the other way around and they agree with this amount. In reality, blood alcohol content is very sensitive in the fact that just being a small margin above or below .08% can really make a difference regarding the level of impairment for the drinker. Studies at the University of California conclude that they “find no safe combination of drinking and driving -- no point at which it is harmless to consume alcohol and get behind the wheel of a car”. Their data from experimentation with intoxicated drivers also suggests and supports the idea of reducing the legal BAC in

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.

Drunk driving is a dangerous problem that needs to be addressed in our society, not only to cut back on the number of deaths caused by alcohol related accidents but also to ensure safety on public roads. Drunk driving is deliberately breaking the law, as well as a sign of indifference for other drivers.

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.

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.

Alcohol is something that has been part of human nature for thousands of years. It has been used by means of medical, social, religious, and cultural settings (Information about Alcohol, n.d.). Alcohol is going to be a product that will be a part of our lives for many years to come, definitely past our lifetime. A problem that we see today is the use of drinking and driving. This is one of life’s more dangerous and stupid activities, but people still decide to do it. People like to push their abilities to the edge, which could end up causing death to themselves and others. When we watch the news, there always seems to be at least one crash that involved a drunk driver. You have to remember that one incident happened in our city,

America is home to many unique things. For instance, movie entertainment is native to the United States. In the early nineteen hundreds, Americans combined two of their favorite things; cars and movies. They were called drive-ins they were very popular in the United States. Drive-ins spread like a wildfire throughout America, but started rather small, families all over the United States seem to have loved them no matter the quality of the sound and picture of the move; however, for various reasons, they sadly died out and there are very few left today.