Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Drunk driving and its effects
Cause and effects of drunk driving
Cause and effects of drunk driving
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Drunk driving and its effects
A few years ago, my family and I had a drunk driver crash through our front yard. This person tore up grass, destroyed pine tree, and broke numerous lawn ornaments. Less than twenty minutes before this drunk driver went through our yard, my mom and I had been walking our dogs, and if the drunk driver had gone through any earlier, my mom and I both would have been hit. This driver also destroyed a garbage barrel, and almost slammed into an electrical pole. In a way, the drunk driver had been lucky when he went through our yard, especially when we had just taken a gigantic walnut tree out of our yard two or three years prior. The driver also had two passengers with him, a woman, and a small child. The child passenger had been unbuckled, and amazingly, was not thrown from the rear of the vehicle. After going through our yard, the drunk driver had oil leaking from his car, at least two flat tires, and damage to the front of his car. Eventually, the drunk driver was caught by the police, and placed in jail. The insurance company that represents my family assessed the damage done, and said that the total cost of the damage would equal almost two thousand dollars. The driver was only required to pay my family three hundred dollars and nothing more than this amount. After receiving this amount, my family and I never heard anything else about the driver who had destroyed our yard, and have not received any other dollar amount since that incident. Looking back on this, I wonder if there is anything that allows a drunk driver to be sued for destroying a person’s property. In the article, The Behavioral Impact of Drinking and Driving Laws by Bertelli and Richardson Jr. (2008), the authors make the statement that driving under the... ... middle of paper ... ...Policy Studies Journal, 36(4), 545-569. doi:10.1111/j.1541-0072.2008.00283.x Carpenter, C. (2004). How do Zero Tolerance Drunk Driving Laws work? Journal of Health Economics, 23(1), 61-83. doi:10.1016/j.jhealeco.2003.08.005 Chang, K., Wu, C., & Ying, Y. (2012). The effectiveness of alcohol control policies on alcohol-related traffic fatalities in the United States. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 45, 406-415. doi:10.1016/j.aap.2011.08.008 Cismaru, M., Lavack, A. M., & Markewich, E. (2009). Social marketing campaigns aimed at preventing drunk driving : A review and recommendations. International Marketing Review, 26(3), 292-311. doi:10.1108/02651330910960799 Voas, R. B., Romano, E., & Peck, R. (2009). Validity of surrogate measures of alcohol involvement when applied to nonfatal crashes. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 41(3), 522-530. doi:10.1016/j.aap.2009.02.004
Hingson, Ralph. "Prevention of Drinking and Driving." Alcohol Research & Health. Winter 1996-1997: 219-226. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 22 Feb. 2014.
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,...
While drunk drivers who cause injuries or deaths may spend some time behind bars as punishment for their actions, for their victims the accident can often be a life sentence. Drunk driving has lifelong ramifications for those who are injured and who must live the rest of their lives with pain, disability, isolation, medical bills, or the loss of loved ones. While drunk-driving offenders can usually reclaim a normal life after their eventual release from jail, victims may never regain the normalcy that was taken from them so abruptly.
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
“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.
Drunk driving is a problem that we hear about every day and it is something that effects everyone, but it only becomes real when it affects us directly. What we don’t know is when a problem like drunk driving will become “real” for us. Drunk driving is an issue that has taken a toll on our country and should be stopped. Drunk driving has been an increasing problem for many years. It effects not only the driver but all of society. The good thing is there are many ways the percentage of drunk drivers can be reduced. Although many people believe drunk driving doesn't affect them because they don't drink and drive, it is something that affects the whole community.
Wechsler, Henry, and Toben F. Nelson. "Percentage of alcohol-related motor vehicle fatalities among young adults aged 16 to 24 years, by age group: United States, 1982-2007". Graph. American Journal of Public Health 100.6 (2010): 986-992. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 22 Mar. 2011.
Main Point I: I’d like to start off by talking about the penalties of drinking and driving. Did you know that drunk driving is the nation’s most frequently committed violent crime? A chronic drunk driver is a person who has driven over 1,000 times before being caught. They do not respond to social pressures, law enforcement, and the messages that have been combined to reform the drinking and driving behavior of our society.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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.
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.