Preventing Drunk Driving

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Recommended: Peer pressure and drinking and 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, 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. Drunk driving is a serious problem, and much has been done in recent years to stop it. Every day drunk drivers are arrested, either for traffic violations, erratic driving, random traffic stops or accidents. Laws and penalties have been created and implemented in recent years that make it harder to get away with this crime. Additionally the creation of groups like MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) and SADD (Students Against Drunk Driving have lobbied and cause the implementation of many of these laws and penalties. Every states has adopted 21 as the legal drinking age and 2/3 of our states have passed Administrative License Revocation (ALR) laws. This allows the arresting officer to confiscate the drivers license of anyone who fails or refuses to take a breath test. Additionally, every state has now lowered the legal BAC (blood alcohol concentration) limit from .10 to .08 for adults, and Zero Tolerance laws have been passed that prohibit any driver under the age of 21 from having any measurable amount of alcohol in their blood system. Penalties for drinking and driving have increased, particularly for repeat offend... ... middle of paper ... ... is pretty simple. I'm sure you've all heard the expression "friends don't let friends drive drunk". If you see a friend is drunk, take away their keys, drive them home or send them home with a sober friend. You don't have to be "legally drunk" to be seriously impaired, so the excuse of only having a few drinks should not be accepted. Get your friends, family and community involved. You can create a "SafeRides" program in your area, where volunteers offer to be called upon to drive home people who have had to much to drink. You can contact SADD for information about "The Contract for Life", and if there isn't a SADD chapter in your area you can start one. Most importantly, don't give in to peer pressure and don't allow your friends to pressure others or be pressured into drinking. Don't wait for someone else to take the lead, be the leader that your community needs.

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