Drinking And Driving: A Brief Summary And Analysis

Imagine the idea of a college student driving back to her dorm from the grocery store. She waits patiently for the light to turn green as she sings to her favorite song on the radio. Finally, its time for her to go and she accelerates through the intersection. Little did she know a man that had too many drinks would come flying through the red light. The last thing she saw was the headlights of his car. Drunk driving is a heartbreaking occurrence. Every day drunk drivers are imprisoned, either for traffic violations, dangerous driving, or accidents. People that make the mistake of drinking and driving not only put themselves in danger; they put all of the other people on the roads in danger. Innocent lives may be lost because of another’s

2. Every day in America, another 28 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 2011.)

Every 51 minutes in America, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash. A dangerous issue facing society today is the problem of teen drinking and driving. Currently an approximate of 10,076 people die in drunk driving crashes per year. If positive progress to ceasing this act does not happen, teens will continue to drink and drive putting everybody on the road at risk. Teens who drink and drive put everyone on the road at risk, causing serious crashes that could be preventable.

Not so fun fact: In 2009,“According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), drunk driving fatalities accounted for 32% of all traffic deaths last year, that is, on average someone is killed in an alcohol-impaired driving crash every 45 minutes in the U.S.” (National Highway). Doesn’t that just make you want to get in your car and go on road trip?!

Every 20 minutes, someone will die in an alcohol related traffic accident. Most people think it could never happen to them but experts estimate that everyone has at least a 40% chance of being in a crash that involves alcohol use sometime in their life. According to a survey by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, drunken driving is the number 1 highway safety problem. Some believe that better education, more police and higher penalties, the number of alcohol related deaths and accidents can be reduced(madd).

In 2013, 10,076 people were killed in drunk driving incidents. Out of those people, 65% (6,515) were drivers, 27% (2,724) were passengers, and 8% (837) were non-passengers (“Drunk Driving Statistics”). Over half of those fatalities (67.1%) involved blood alcohol levels over .15% (“Drunk Driving Statistics”). The legal blood-alcohol content is .08%. Drunk driving caused 31% of deaths in car crashes in 2013 (“Drunk Driving Statistics”). In 2012, 402 people were killed by alcohol impairment in North Carolina (“Drunk Driving Statistics”). These numbers, though they seem astonishing, have been cut in half since 1991 (“Drunk Driving Statistics”). Even though the number of fatalities has been lowered, that number is not low enough. Most drunk drivers are repeat offenders. Lives are being taken because of the careless attitude of the drunk drivers. Drunk driving is selfish; those who commit this crime do not think about the extreme consequences of their actions. In North America it is estimated that 1-5 drivers has been drinking and 1 in 10 is legally impaired on any Friday or Saturday night (Root). Many groups, including MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), are fighting to stop drunk driving. Unfortunately, drunk driving cannot be stopped. People will always commit this heinous crime. The numbers may go down, but unfortunately there will always be a number. The only way to continually decrease the amount of lives lost is to increase punishments for drunk driving.

Although there are many commercials, ads, documentaries, seminars, etc. on the reasons why people should never drink and drive, you would be surprised how many people still get behind the wheel after having had more than just a drink or two. We might not realize it but every day, about 28 people in the United States die in car crashes that involve a drunk driver. This equals to one death every 51 minutes! It’s so sad because these statistics could be way better if people had a well thought out plan prior to going out drinking. There has been research found relating to Drinking and Driving Behaviors since this topic is now becoming more of an issue in this generation than it was in the past. For instance, Schell, Chan, and Morral (2006), found that some people who have a DUI record tend to have pretty high expectations of themselves even after having some drinks in their system (e.g., “I feel more relaxed when drinking"), so with that being said those people with higher confidence were the ones more likely to be engaged in drinking and driving activity. While intoxicated, we often don’t consider any negative consequences that can happen to us but as you’ll see on the news, on social media, in the newspapers, etc. driving while under the influence can be very dangerous and even fatal.

The sobering fact is drivers under the age of 21 are responsible for 17% of fatal alcohol related accidents, even though they represent only 10% of licensed drivers (Stim, R. Teen Drunk Driving: The Sobering Facts of Underage DUIs (n.d.). There are approximately 2000 deaths associated with under aged drinking and according to the blood alcohol content of the victims, the main contributing factor is binge drinking, averaging 5 times the legal limit. Research has also shown that more times than not, the underage drunk driving is not wearing seat belts, increasing the chances of a fatal accident. They have found that this # is 74% of the population of drunk drivers involved in fatal

In 2010, 10,228 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (31%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States. Of the 1,210 traffic deaths among children ages 0 to 14 years in 2010, 211 (17%) involved an alcohol-impaired driver. Of the 211 child passengers ages 14 and younger who died in alcohol-impaired driving crashes in 2010, over half (131) were riding in the vehicle with the alcohol-impaired driver. In 2010, over 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics. That is one percent of the 112 million self-reported episodes of alcohol-impaired driving among U.S. adults each year.

Nationally, over 534,000 people sustain injuries from alcohol related collisions a year, which adds up to be about one a minute. Around 16,000 die

Fourth, according to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, alcohol “is the fourth leading cause of death in the general population after heart disease, stroke and cancer” (Giesbrecht 25). The bereavement of many families could have been avoided. For some, the death was not caused by any fault of the deceased, but by the indiscretion of another. One fifth of all traffic fatalities involving children ages zero to fourteen were caused by an alcohol impaired driver (CDC). These children had not been drinking, but the foolhardiness of another cost a family their

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.

If you drink and drive, you are not only a danger to yourself but also to your passenger, other road users and pedestrians. In fact, every 30 minutes, someone in this country dies in alcohol-related crash. Every 30 minutes! And last year alone more than one million people are injured in

Someone in America dies every twenty-two minutes, because of an alcohol related accident. Most people feel that they will never be part of this statistic, but experts on this subject say that everyone has a forty percent chance of being in an accident with a drunk driver. Drunk driving is a serious problem that the United States, as well as the world, is trying to deal with, because it does not only effect a select few, it effects everyone. Drunk driving amongst high school students is an enormous problem that the United States is trying to cope with. Many programs have come to surface over the past few years, that educate students on this situation. MADD, mothers against drunk driving, is a non profit

Another drinking related activity that is deadly is drunk driving. Drinking and driving kills someone every fifty-three minutes. Every fifty-three minutes a mother and father loses their child because of an alcohol related accident. Every ninety seconds alone someone is injured. These deaths and injuries could be easily prevented if people would think before acting. If people would give up their keys or find a designated driver 10,000 people a year wouldn’t lose their lives. Drinking and driving takes the lives of many innocent woman, children, and men.