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During the dark hours, my grandfather was walking the streets in El Monte, California. It never crossed his mind that during that night his life would flash before his eyes. He was at a crosswalk where he pressed the button to cross the street. Once the cross light switched for him to cross, he did. He took his first step off the sidewalk and began walking. My grandfather did not realize what was to come once he stepped off the sidewalk. A car approached going over the speed limit. The person in the car was under the influence and ran a red light. It was then that my grandfather was hit by a drunk driver. My grandfather passed away at the sight of the scene. The young adult that hit him was taken into custody and put on trial for my grandfather’s death. If it wasn’t for the drunk driver who ran the red light that night my grandfather would still be alive today. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Today there are …show more content…
The article “Teens Drinking and Driving” (2012) recognizes that drinking and driving among adolescents in high school had declined by 54% since 1991. Although there has been a decline, high school teens continue to drink and drive 2.4 million times a month. Almost one million high school adolescents reported drinking and driving in 2011. The article “Teens Drinking and Driving” also states, “85% of teens in high school report drinking and driving in the past month also say they binge drank” (2012). Binge drinking is consuming five or more alcoholic beverages within a certain time frame, which can lead to drunk driving and other risky behavior. “Teens Drinking and Driving” (2012) also reports that one in five adolescents that drive under the influence are involved in deadly crashes with alcohol in their body. No matter what the circumstances are adolescents continue to drink and drive. There are solutions that can help decrease the ever occurring dangers of drunk
Each year, about 5,000 teens are killed or injured in traffic crashes as a result of underage drinking and about 1,900 are due to car accidents. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation) In the newsletter, safety in numbers by National highway traffic administration and U.S department of transportation “Of all the people who died in motor vehicle crashes during 2012, 31 percent died in crashes involving a drunk driver, and this percentage remains unchanged for the past 10 years” (Vol 1, 2013). Crashes involving alcohol include fatal crashes in which a driver had a BAC of .01 g/ ld. or higher (Underage Drinking Statistics)). Deadly crashes involving alcohol are twice as common in teens compared to people 21 and older. This is because teens’ judgment skills are harmed more by alcohol. Teens who drink not only risk hurting themselves, they risk hurting their friends, family, and even strangers when driving intoxicated. Teens and parents both need a strong reminder that underage drinking is illegal and can have disastrous consequences. According to Health Day News, “one study found that in 2011, 36 percent of U.S. college students said they'd gone binge drinking (five or more drinks in one sitting) within the past two weeks, as compared to 43 percent of college students in 1988. Since 2006, the current law has reduced the rate of drunk driving crashes among young Americans” (Preidt, 2014 and DeJong, 2014). This proves that lives have been saved after the legal drinking age increased. According to an article in Time Magazine called “Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered?”, “lowering the drinking age to 18 would stop infantilizing college students, but it would probably kill mor...
Each year numerous lives are lost due to careless and irrational driving. The disregard for safe driving has been a predicament to Queensland for years. For many years? police have relied heavily on speed cameras, breathe testing and heavy fines as a deterrent against unlawful drivers. Over the years fatality rates have increased, so Queensland Transport has composed a series of safe driving campaigns. On many occasions the transport department informs and advises the public about the importance of responsible driving. They propagate safe driving through the various channels of the media. Their safe driving campaign is now using effective propaganda aimed directly at speeding; drink driving and tired and reckless driving
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. Drunk driving not only puts yourself in danger, but those around you. Drunk driving in Wisconsin doesn’t have strict laws. The fine for drunk driving in Wisconsin on the first offense ranges from 150-300 dollars. You could’ve killed someone. A life doesn’t cost 300 dollars. Life is priceless. Drunk driving in America is a large reason for injuries or deaths of young adults and teens.
The use of alcohol by adolescents is implicated in about one third of all fatal crashes involving teens.
Drunk Driving is defined as: Operating a motor vehicle while one 's blood alcohol content is above the legal limit set by statute, which supposedly is the level at which a person cannot drive safely. State statutes define the legal limit to be between .08 and .10 depending on what state you’re in. Every 51 minutes in America, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash(MADD). That equates to 27 people every day. Which comes to a total of at least 9,855 deaths in a year. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 32% of fatal car crashes involve an intoxicated driver or pedestrian (MADD). As of right now, in society the total number of drunk driving accidents is slowly but surely increasing and if nothing is done about it, it’ll result in a tragic amount of deaths and injuries. Drunk drivers are extremely dangerous not just to oneself, but to society as well. That is why one serious solution to this societal epidemic is to create a portion of the driving test where drivers will be required to be at least ten beers deep and while drunk they must drive through a set of
Many teens think that drinking and engaging in risky behavior is the ‘norm’ now-a-days. Every year we hear stories on how more and more teenagers are engaging in this risky behavior, and it is leaving some behind bars, and others even dead. It is serious business and many teenagers do not understand that. They are just doing it because they think that it is cool and because they want to seem like they fit in, which is not the way to do it. Underage drinking and drinking and driving are illegal.
Andrew lived a normal life, he played xbox with his friends every night, on weekends he went to the skate park with a different set of friends. He thought they were pretty good kids and that they wouldn’t do anything to put him in any harm, he trusted them. Then one day his friends came to pick him up and he had a bad feeling about it but he got in the car anyways, while they were driving they kept swerving to the side but every time he asked to drive instead of one of his friends but they wouldn’t let him. He was feeling very unsafe since they were on a busy street in the afternoon with busses full of kids around and parents picking kids up from school. They were approaching a stop light and he asked how much they had drank but
Alcohol-related traffic fatalities constituted almost 37 percent of all fatal youth traffic fatalities (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2002). If teenagers are educated on the risk involved in driving under the influence of alcohol, the chances that they would indulge in this activity would be greatly reduced. Clearly state your opposition and rules against driving under the influence followed by punishments associated with violating these rules. Building alliances with your teenagers parents to ensure the two families work together to reduce the possibility of the teenagers driving under the influence of alcohol. Implementing stricter laws on teenagers driving under the influence, in way of taking away their driving privileges or restricting their driving privileges. Stricter laws could also be implemented and enforced on adults who provide teenagers with alcohol and alcoholic beverages. There are times when teenagers find themselves with friends that choose to drink and drive or they find themselves being pressured into activities they wouldn’t ordinarily participate in. In this situation there needs to be a rule that teenagers can call home for a ride with no questions asked. This will allow the teenager to feel comfortable enough to have the parents as a safe alternative for a ride home opposed to getting in a vehicle with someone under the influence or getting behind the wheel while under the influence to try to make it home. Collaboration among parents, teenagers, other parents as well as law enforcement can reduce the fatalities associated with auto accidents associated with teenage
Every teen waits with anticipation for their sixteenth birthday. They have so much to celebrate. A birthday for starters, a ‘new’ car, new places to go, no more relying on parents and a new lease on life. But with this new lease on life comes more dangers, car accidents and underage drinking. Anna Quindlen talks about raising the driving age to prevent these dangers, while Brandon Griggs says to lower the drinking age to take away the excitement of drinking and to prevent binge drinking on college campuses. Raising the driving age will diminish quality of life for teens, and lowering the drinking age will lessen the excitement of alcohol to maintain quality of life.
When an intoxicated individual makes a decision to sit behind the wheel of an automobile and drive home, he endangers everyone on the road. In 2011, an average of one alcohol related driving fatality occurred every 53 minutes, making alcohol responsible for almost 32% of traffic related deaths (Drunk Driving, 1). Alcohol-related crashed are estimated to cost the public more than $50 billion per year. Everyone has heard that drunk driving is dangerous, but each year an estimated 17 million people choose to operate a motor vehicle under the influence (Drunk Driving, 1). Although the frequency of drunk driving has decreased over the years, the emotional toll on families and monetary costs on the public is still outrageous. The widespread impact that drunk driving has on the American public makes this the most important topic in crime today.
According to the article “Teen Drinking and Driving”, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, states statistical evidence that “young drivers (ages 16-20) are 17 times more likely to die in a crash when they have a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08% than when they have not been drinking” (par. 3). Others might argue that alcohol is used as a stress reliever because many teens suffer through emotional and mental problems. They have a hard time reaching out for help, so instead, they reach for a couple of beers from the refrigerator. Article written by Raychelle Cassada Lohmann, a professional school counselor and author, states “teens who struggle with emotional and mental problems are especially vulnerable to becoming susceptible to the luring power of alcohol and drugs” (par. 15). Dealing with emotional and mental problems are important, but there are other ways to do other than drinking alcoholic beverages. Turning to alcohol is not the only solution to the problems, teens can seek help from others as
Picture this, you are driving down the road and you put your turn sign on. You begin to turn the car and then all of a sudden ou airbags blow up while your head jerks towards it and the glass from the windows shatter all over your car.You car spins and our tires skid across the road. You get out of your car and a teenager gets out, but not a normal teenager, drunk one. Drinking and driving is still a problem for teenagers. One reason that drinking and driving is still a problem for teenagers is that drinking and driving does not allow teenagers to fully learn responsibility. Another reason drinking and driving is still a problem is because when you drink and drive you are putting you life and others’ lives at risk.
Every two minutes, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash, costing the United States $199 billion a year (“Mothers Against Drunk Driving”). When a person is under the influence of alcohol, or any type of drug, there is potential for car accidents, traffic fatalities, and a lifetime of physical and/or mental disorders. In 2015, CBS News reported Ohio to have 585 episodes of drinking and driving per 1,000 people. In order to lessen the number of drunk drivers in Ohio, business establishments--or sources that sell alcohol--must be more aware about alcohol safety. In order to bring awareness of alcohol safety, regulations to obtain a license to sell alcohol must be changed to protect citizens. For a business establishment to serve alcohol, owners and employees must be required to take courses specializing in alcohol safety.
What seems worse, texting while driving or driving drunk? We all believe drunk driving has the most consequences because we hear about it all the time. Adults and schools are constantly preaching “Don’t drink and drive” to young teenagers. What they do not praise as much is “Don’t text and drive”. Texting and driving is six times more likely to cause a car accident than drunk driving. The majority of people are for the laws, but are still guilty of distracted driving. This type of driving is more common with the younger generations because phones are our lives nowadays. Teens have the least amount of experience behind the wheel and are the most susceptible to accidents. Not a lot of experience and texting is one of the ways teenagers get into
Since operating a motor vehicle after consuming alcohol is a crime, suspending someone’s driver license the first time they are convicted of this crime should be enforced in all states. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that in 2016 there were 10,497 fatalities in motor vehicle traffic crashes involving drivers with BACs of .08 g/dL or higher. Passing this law might help to decrease deaths and make motorists mindful of the consequences of driving while being under the influence of alcohol.