Drunk Driving: A Deadly & Preventable Menace

999 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Drunken driving causes and effects

Every day about 800 people are injured in a drunk driving crash. Police are not paying close enough attention to drunk drivers displayed in the fact, quoted by Mothers against Drunk Driving (MADD), an average drunk driver has driven drunk over 80 times before the first arrest. Drunk drivers affect everyone around them; other drivers, passengers, pedestrians, etc. Drunk driving leads to unpleasant car accidents and fatal injuries. According to MADD, alcohol-related crashes kill about 10,000 people per year in the United States. The problem of drinking and driving can be solved by placing more sobriety checks throughout the year and lower the legal state limit of driving under the influence; furthermore, a study at the University of Chicago estimates …show more content…

According to Center for Disease Control and Prevention, in 2015, 10,265 people died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (29%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States. The cause of drunk driving is alcohol; however, it would be difficult to get people to stop selling alcohol. Alcohol is a big money maker for stores and alcoholic beverage companies. According to MADD, 57% of fatally injured drivers had alcohol and/or other drugs in their system — 17% were caused by both. Some effects of drunk driving are; car crashes, severe injuries, fatal accidents, and more. The people affected by drunk driving crashes include the intoxicated drivers, other drivers, passengers, and occasionally …show more content…

One solution that could benefit society are lowering the legal of BAC state limit and placing more sobriety checks throughout the year and not just around holidays. According to MADD, in 2013, a total of 1,149 children 14 and younger were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes. Of those 1,149 fatalities, 200 (17%) occurred in alcohol-impaired-driving crashes. Out of those 200 deaths, 121 (61%) were occupants of vehicles with drivers who had BACS of .08 or higher, and another 29 children (15%) were pedestrians or pedal-cyclists struck by drivers with BACS of .08 or higher. Another solution to drinking and driving could be placing sobriety check throughout the year more often than during the

Show More
Related

  • The Consequences of Drinking and Driving

    533 Words  | 2 Pages

    The facts are plain and simple, that alcohol and driving do not mix. About three in every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol related crash at some time in their lives. Every single injury and death caused by drunk driving is totally preventable. To curb this national travesty, concerned Americans need to examine the problems, the effects, and the solutions to drunk driving. First of all, America has had a problem with drunk driving since Ford perfected the assembly line. Alcoholism is a problem in and of itself, but combined with driving can have a wide range of effects. The consequences of this reckless behavior can include a first time DUI or licenses suspension; a small fender bender, or worst of all a deadly crash. Most drivers that have only one or two drinks feel fine, and assume they are in control, which is irresponsible and dangerous. Alcohol is a depressant that slows down the body's ability to react and impairs judgment. To drive well, you need to be able to have a quick reaction time to avoid accidents. Unfortunately, people continue to drink and drive. However,...

    Read More

  • The Current State of Drunk Driving Laws in the State of Illinois

    1094 Words  | 3 Pages

    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).

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Tougher DUI Laws

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    People do not realize how much of a problem drinking and driving can cause, not only in the United States but all over the world. In 2009, 1.4 million drivers have been arrested, but the influenced by alcohol or drugs. There is a very high percentage of motorcycle fatalities and about a third of them are alcohol accidents and there levels are above legal

    Read More

  • America Needs Better Drunk Driving Laws

    1201 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Drink the first. Sip the second slowly. Skip the third. The speedway ends at the cemetery” (Rockne). Every day, almost 30 people in the United States die in motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol-impaired driver. This amounts to one death every 48 minutes. The annual cost of alcohol related crashes totals more than 51 billion. In Recent discussions of drunk driving, a controversial issue has been whether the driving while intoxicated laws should be increased due to the amount tax payers are paying for drunk driving crashes. On the one hand. Some argue that the driving laws for driving drunk should remain the same and not change. From this perspective the laws about driving under the influence should greatly increase to be stricter, this will help decrease the death rate per year in the United States. On the other hand, however others argue that the laws about driving while drunk are already too strict and should remain unchanged. In sum, then, the issue is whether the laws about driving drunk should be greatly increased to be more effective, or remain unchanged. Because drunk driving can result in unnecessary and premature deaths, unsafe roadways, billions of dollars spent on taxpayers due to DUI’S, and losing a loved one. Drunk driving laws should be altered to be more efficient.

    Read More

  • Drunk Driving

    1405 Words  | 3 Pages

    Drunk driving has been an increasing problem for many years. One issue that contributes to this is that in the United States it is actually legal to drive with a certain alcohol percentage. The blood alcohol limit is 0.8 percent (Drunk Driving). This means that a person may drive legally as long as they have a blood alcohol percentage of 0.8 percent or under. However, even at a percentage of 0.3 there may be some impairment of alertness and concentration (Drunk Driving). Driving requires fast reflexes that may be impaired at a 0.5 percent blood alcohol level but a person with this level of intoxication is not legally drinking and driving. Many people are arrested for drunk driving. In 2009, more than 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving while under the influence (Drunk Driving). In addition, “an average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before their first arrest” (Get Involved). Therefore, there were a minimum of 112 million accounts of drunk driving in 2009 alone. Drunk drivers also cause an increasing number of deaths. Drunk drivers in the United States c...

    Read More

  • Drunk Driving, be the Difference

    638 Words  | 2 Pages

    Driving under the influence is extremely dangerous. Those who drink and drive tend to have an increased risk of car accidents, highway injuries, and vehicular fatalities. However, there are countless ways to prevent drunk driving. Professor David J. Hanson at the sociology department at the State University of New York states that “designated drivers have saved nearly 50,000 lives and spared many more thousands of people from suffering injury from drunk driving. It is a proven fact that almost 30 people in the US die every day in a motor vehicle accident involving a driver impaired by alcohol.” Every accident caused by drunk driving is one hundred percent preventable.

    Read More

  • Why Shouldn’t We Lower the Blood Alcohol Rate?

    840 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is a tragic truth: About 10,000 lives are lost in the United States because of drunk driving each year. Alcohol is wildly known as one of the main reasons of causing social security issue. Small amount can make people feel relaxed, but bigger amount could make them loss their coordination, get feeling of confusion and disorientation, and significantly slowed their reaction time. On average, one person dies every hour because of alcoholic traffic accident in United State. Therefore, the NTSB put out a recommendation last May that the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) level for drivers should be lowered from the current level of .08% to .05%. But for several reasons, we shouldn’t lower the criterion on blood alcohol content.

    Read More

  • We Need Stricter Laws for Drunk Driving (DUI)

    2242 Words  | 5 Pages

    There is a need for the introduction and implementation of new drunk driving laws by the legislature, because presently the united States drunk driving laws are too lenient. The continuous rate of drunken driving fatalities makes a case that the united States drunk driving laws are too lenient and makes a call for stricter laws. According to Valenti “countries with strict drunk driving penalties have a far lower incidence of accidents than the United States (1). The United States being a first world country is weak in enforcing strict punishment for drunk drivers. Valenti is emphasizing on the fact that the united States need to improve their present laws and be firm in enforcing these new laws. There is a need for the United States to improve on their severity of its drunk driving penalties just the way the other part of the world have done and this is giving them a reduced rate of drunk driving fatalities. The claim of the leniency of the United States drunk driving laws is further stated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), this is a prominent body when it comes to the issue of drunken driving fatalities. It claims that the drunken driving laws are severe enough. “Despite great strides in awareness, education and enforcement in the last two decades the United States still has one of the most lenient drunken driving standards in the world”. (NHTSA of existing laws. There is a need for stricter laws to be introduced as the United States ranks behind the world when it comes to effort to combat drunk driving and more efforts need to be put in place by the implementation of harsher laws so as to reduce the high rate of repeat offenders and first time offenders.

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Drunk Driving

    1567 Words  | 4 Pages

    For many years, drunk driving casualties have been viewed differently. Many believe that drunk driving laws are strict while others believe that it is too lenient. In this generations, where alcohol is cheap and very accessible many tends to abuse it. This people who abuse alcohol is known as drunk drivers because after taking three or four drinks they still believe that they are not drunk and goes back to the wheel of their vehicle without thinking of what will happen next. This drunk drivers are willing to risk their lives and the lives of others because they are ashamed or too big to call a family member or a designated drivers to take them home. If they are lucky and did not die on their way home. Then they create this dangerous cycle of

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay On Drinking And Driving

    832 Words  | 2 Pages

    Driving under the influence is one of the most common and dangerous situations in which anyone can be or be placed. Drinking and driving is a serious offence that can cause someone to be physically harm or even killed. Not only are you putting yourself at risk but you are also risking the lives of passengers in the car as well as any other car and occupants sharing the road with you. Many people believe that increasing fines for drunk driving offenders will play a compelling role in cutting down the occurrences of driving under the influence. However, while harsher DUI laws will look effective on paper, they will not make a significant step in the fight against drunk driving. Although there is a law enforced for drinking and driving in the

    Read More

  • Drinking And Driving

    1270 Words  | 3 Pages

    The growing awareness of alcohol hazards has made people more cautious of their drinking habits, particularly young adults. At present young adults have the highest prevalence of alcohol consumption than any other age group. They also drink more heavily, experience more negative consequences, and engage in more harmful activities, specifically drunk driving. Although surveys have documented a decline in recent years, consumption rates remain highest from late teen years to the late twenties (Johnston1-3). Despite the long-term decline since 1982 in alcohol related traffic deaths, a 4 percent increase occurred between 1994 and 1995 among young adults age 21 and over (Hingson 4). As alcohol-impaired driving persists, legal and community initiatives intervene to help reduce the problem, as well as, continuing research on possible solutions.

    Read More

  • The Effects Of Driving And The Dangers Of Drinking And Driving

    751 Words  | 2 Pages

    Drinking and driving causes people to do crazy things on the road. It makes people drive reckless, speed, and causes death in some cases. Death is a real big deal in cases that deal with drinking and driving. In 2007, a study was done that showed that

    Read More

  • Alcohol Abuse

    978 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...ed by drunken drivers and innocent lives are involved. To prevent those road accident from happening, many country impose rule such as "no alcohol after 10" ("Prevention Works") and cars are stopped by the traffic police to check the driver's breath to detect those who are drunk and they will get fine if they are. However, study shown that there are "over 2 million drove a car in 2001 while under the influence of alcohol" in America ("The Alcohol Addiction Dilemma"). This large digit will contribute to the risk of having automobile accident.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay: The Problem Of Alcohol Consumption

    1148 Words  | 3 Pages

    Alcohol consumption not only does harm to the drinker, sometimes it also hurts the innocent people in a terrible way: drunk driving. Alcohol affects you by changing your judgments, depth perception as well as vital motor skills required to drive safely. Without a clear mind, immeasurable

    Read More

  • Hey—Don't Drink and Drive!

    1619 Words  | 4 Pages

    Many people in the United States enjoy a drink of their favorite alcoholic beverage. It could be a nice ice cold beer after a hard day of work or going to the bar and enjoying a few shots or mixed drinks with friends. Drinking alcohol is a common way to mingle with friends and take the edge off a difficult day. However, there are dangers involved with alcohol since it does dampen the body’s ability to cope with new information. Alcohol becomes a poison to the body when consumed in large quantities. The biggest danger is not to the driver after they become inebriated, but comes to anyone the drunk driver comes in contact with. A sober person can be dangerous just by being distracted, but a drunk driver’s ability to cope with changing situations and distractions is one of the biggest hazards on today’s roads. Some individuals believe that they are not as impaired as what they are led to believe from government ads and the many videos that show what can happen to someone who is drinking and driving. Although, there are many policies in place to advocate against drunk driving, there are those who would endanger themselves and others with their thoughtless actions when they jump into the driver’s seat of a vehicle. Drinking and driving should never be combined because a person who has been drinking does not have the ability to use all mental faculties unimpaired, many people have been killed, injured, or psychologically hurt by a drunk driver, many men and women do not know the difference weight and gender have on the body’s ability to process alcohol, and the financial and legal trouble that is awaiting for those convicted by a DUI.

    Read More

More about Drunk Driving: A Deadly & Preventable Menace

Open Document