The foam of the lager remained on my peach fuzzed mustache as I sipped my first beer. I was twelve years old and indulging in alcohol was not a wise decision. I didn't know the impact it would have on my life or the ramifications involved with drinking. Thinking about consequences and the effects of the choices we make is a thought process deleted with more alcohol consumption. As I grew older and became able to drive the opportunity to drink and drive presented itself quite often. Although I never drove drunk I was a culprit of having one beer then driving but this practice stopped as life hurled tragedy at me. My godmother was killed by a drunk driver in addition my father, who was in the car too, was seriously injured as well. This shock filled experience helped define my view towards alcohol and my consumption of it especially in relation to driving. Now as an adult my position is very strongly on the side of no alcoholic beverages when I am about to drive. The social aspect of drinking is what propels a lot of individuals to drink but the act of driving while impaired is a dangerous choice.
She left her house with a radiant smile and that same smile continued as I watched her open the door to the car with my father firmly entrenched in the driver's seat. They were on their way to buy a tire for her car which so happened to be three miles from our home. Time crawled along at snails pace and eventually my brothers and myself wondered where my father and godmother were. Within an instant my mother screamed for me and I ran to her as if my life depended on it. Instead my life was not in the balance it was my godmother who had lost hers. Instantly shattered and numb I was afraid to ask the next question but my mother eased my ...
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...as he fell asleep at the wheel with a blood alcohol content level that was twice the legal limit. The car flipped twice and slung Jeffrey from it like a rag doll but he survived and to this day he does not drink. I have several acquaintances who drink a glass of wine, a shot of liquor, a beer or two and then drive home carefree. Although every individual has their own tolerance level as it pertains to alcohol the missing factor that seems to be missing from everyone's mind is the legality of drinking and driving regardless of consumption. Drunk driving is illegal and the importance of understanding how quickly one beer can lead into two should not be misunderstood. By considering those factors people will learn to make better decisions when it comes to alcohol and driving. Having the ability to get into a car and drive is a privilege that should not be taken lightly.
If one person decides to drive home drunk from a party then that person has a chance of getting into a head on collision with others. That choice to drive drunk has just endangered countless lives of innocent people on the road.
Driving is a privilege Americans have been afforded since the invention of the automobile in the late 1800’s. Yet with great power comes great responsibility. One of the responsibilities associated with being able to drive several tons of metal at high speeds is the responsibility of doing so without any distractions or impairments. Choosing to drive drunk puts not only the driver in danger, but also everyone else in the car and on the road. Currently, the average drunk driver will drive eighty times before getting caught by the police (1). On average, one third of all people will be involved in a drunk driving accident during the course of their lifetimes (7). Whereas driving drunk once can be seen as a mistake and a one-time lapse in judgment, choosing to recklessly ignore the law and the safety of others is a serious offense against society. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that one in three persons arrested for drunk driving are repeat offenders (2).
I walked into the room on New Year’s Day and felt a sudden twinge of fear. My eyes already hurt from the tears I had shed and those tears would not stop even then the last viewing before we had to leave. She lay quietly on the bed with her face as void of emotion as a sheet of paper without the writing. Slowly, I approached the cold lifeless form that was once my mother and gave her a goodbye kiss.
Drunk driving happens when families gather at parties, games, or even away on vacations. Do not let a family member and friends stir in this terrible way, and help them decide better. Also, drunk driving does not just hurt the family member of the victim, but other families. “In 2013, 10,076 people were killed and approximately 290,000 were injured. Each crash, each death, each injury impacts not only the person in the crash, but family, friends, classmates, coworkers and more.” Just to imagine that even blows the minds of many people. Drunk driving is a problem that affects everyone, regardless of age or class. In the United States drunk driving is a threat to families, because poor low-income families lose their love ones in a driving accident involving alcohol; dead and gone forever to be here for their love ones, that person could have been their number one source of financial income for that family. In addition, individuals involved in a repeated drunk driving should not be able to purchase a car, for the safety of the communities. They’re one other frightful, ghastly story that happens to a close family friend who happens to be driving one night from school. She was driving home, when she realized a car popped in front of her, spinning around violently. In panic, she had no clue what to do since the road; she was traveling on was one way only. She sat there, her vision blurred, and she needed a plan to escape this horrifying moment, but her brain was in shock. As the car came closer, she closed her eyes, and that was the dreadful car crash that killed Cali in the summer of 2013. Although, Cali 's death could have been prevented if only the driver had not driven in a drunken state, because This did not only took the life of a loved one, but it 's left her two daughters motherless and no one to take care of since their dad was careless, and was not there for them. Couple days later child services took the kids to a
Effects of Drinking and Driving I’ve never seen drinking and driving on a daily planner or heard anyone say I think I’ll get a DUI today. I have heard people say “it’s my life, and if I want to drink and drive I will”. Well, it’s not just your life that is affected by the results of drinking and driving. When you make that choice to drink and drive you are taking the lives of family, friends, and strangers into your hands. You don’t have to get into an accident and kill somebody for the results to destroy you or someone else’s life. Drinking and driving can be the cause of many traumatic life changing events.
“Many people believe that after a few drinks they’re still safe to drive,” said Gary Poedubicky, acting director of the state Division of Highway Traffic Safety. “Even one drink can impair your judgment and reaction time, putting not only yourself,
PURPOSE: To persuade my audience NOT to drink and drive Every person is accountable for his or her own “right to drink”. Failure to treat this or any “right” responsibly has consequences. The person’s “right” can and should be taken away when the failure to act responsibly endangers others.
Almost every adult you encounter can say they have been drunk or slightly intoxicated some point throughout their life, but how many can admit to drunk driving. The use of alcohol when driving is completely frivolous and endangers the lives of others that share the road or is even a passenger in the vehicle. Penalties for DUIs should be harsher as if it was attempted murder or drug use. With the slightest mistake or misjudgment can cost you your own life or the life of someone else.
Many people believe that drunk driving is a big deal and many think that it’s a personal choice in what people choice to do with their lives and if it endangers them or someone then it’s on them.
Progressively there are more accidents happening every year as a result of drunk driving, and these drunk drivers should be greatly penalized, if you drive hammered you should get nailed! Driving drunk is considered to be one of the most severe crimes in almost every state because the driver is not only risking there life they are putting everyone else’s life in danger on the road. Every 22 minutes, someone will die in an alcohol-related traffic accident. Although you probably think that it could never happen to you, experts say everyone has a 40-percent chance of being in a crash involving alcohol use sometime in their life. Being intoxicated while driving is dangerous to your health and the well-being of others.
Young drivers (ages 16-20) are 17 times more likely to die in a crash when they have a blood alcohol concentration of .08% than when they have not been drinking. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) With that being said, it goes to show that teens already cannot handle drinking and how much problems that have are already came about and will prolong about unless the law stay the same. Good amount of families and friends have already lost their children due to countless of fatal car crashes being under the influence and alcohol abuse from consuming too much. One night, Reggie Stephey 18 years young, he was driving home and he had been drinking. Less than a mile from his driveway, Reggie drifted across the center stripe and hitting Natalia Bennett head on also heading home from a birthday party in Austin, with 4 other passengers Natalia Bennett and her Laura Guerrero died at the scene. It was a little past 4:00 in the morning on Sunday, September 19, 1999. ) Instantly like that someone can lose his or her life just for not making such and irresponsible choice. We need to prevent things from happening like this some because it is not getting any
Alcohol is something that people use to help with multiply different things and some studies have shown that alcohol may help protect our bodies from cardiovascular disease. Alcohol does have side effects to our health the surroundings around us and can cause violence, vehicle crashes and even suicide. Alcohol does have an effect on people that many social drinkers may not realize. Many people usually have tried alcohol around 13 years of age and high school students consume more wine coolers that are sold in the U.S. and they drink more than 1 billion beers a year. To understand the effects of alcohol, it begins with the brain. It is a curiosity as to why people feel the need to drink and drive. The way the brain works while influenced with alcohol has always fascinated me. Drinking and driving is one of the biggest decisions that alcohol leads to. The National Public Services Research Institute (NHTSA) did a study on 600 people who admitted driving while under the influence of alcohol. They described in detail the decisions they made leading up to the occurrence of driving while impaired like whether to take part in a drinking event, how to get to the event, how much to drink, and how to get home. The people being interviewed revealed more than 2,000 individual decisions that led to alcohol impaired driving. The decisions were then broken down into several categories as shown on the graph attached. Little is known as to what leads people to continue to drinking and driving. But as research shows, people do think, prior to drinking, how they will get home. It’s after they have already had been drinking that they decide to get behind the wheel.
Nancy was only four years old when her grandmother died. Her grandmother had a big lump on the lower right hand side of her back. The doctors removed it, but it was too late. The tumor had already spread throughout her body. Instead of having a lump on her back, she had a long stitched up incision there. She couldn’t move around; Nancy’s parents had to help her go to the bathroom and do all the simple things that she use to do all by herself. Nancy would ask her grandmother to get up to take her younger sister, Linh, and herself outside so they could play. She never got up. A couple of months later, an ambulance came by their house and took their grandmother away. That was the last time Nancy ever saw her alive. She was in the hospital for about a week and a half. Nancy’s parents never took them to see her. One day, Nancy saw her parents crying and she have never seen them cry before. They dropped Linh and her off at one of their friend’s house. Nancy got mad because she thought they were going shopping and didn’t take her with them.
When someone makes the decision to consume alcoholic beverages, it should go without saying that they should also be choosing to be a responsible drinker. Being a responsible drinker means not consuming more alcohol than their body can handle and more importantly, not getting behind the wheel of any type of vehicle after drinking. In an article written by high school student Steven Engler, he says it well; “If you choose to use it, do it responsibly, and don’t put anyone’s life in danger, including your own.” (New York Times, 2003) No matter the person’s age or the type of alcohol consumed, alcohol lowers a person’s inhibitions and ability to think clearly, while also increasing their chances of engaging in risky activities. It is possible for a person to have a few drinks, relax and have a good time however, all too often people overdo it and end up making bad decisions that they most often regret. Many times, the worst of these decisions is convincing themselves that they are “fine” and what they drank will not impair their driving. Some may say that these individuals simply “made a mistake.” Yes, everyone does make mistakes however, driving while intoxicated is not a mistake that affects only them, it is something that affects and risks the lives of many people and themselves. The sad thing is that drunk driving is one hundred percent preventable and therefore the loss of lives due to the recklessness of drinking and driving is preventable as well. Mr. Bloomberg hit the nail on the head when he said “Simply put, drunk driving is selfish, criminal and it kills, and we are not going to tolerate it.” (New York Times, 2002) Drinking and driving is a selfish act made by a person who seemingly does not care about the people around th...
Many people have lost loved ones as a result of drunk driving. Alcohol related motor vehicle accidents are one of the main causes of death, especially with teenagers. After drinking alcohol, a person’s perception and judgement become distorted and they may feel overconfident and take chances they’d never take if sober. Alcohol affects the body by impairing vision, slowing down reaction time, and making the body feel more relaxed and drowsy. People think that they can be careful when they drive drunk and that they’ll make it home safely, however, consuming alcohol makes the task almost impossible. Although drunk driving is more common in the youth, drinking is dangerous for everyone, particularly if they aren’t completely educated on the risks.