Despite knowledge of the dangers, people in San Jose, and throughout California, frequently get behind the wheel after drinking. This commonly leads to auto accidents, which may result in serious injuries or death for the drunk drivers themselves, as well as other drivers, passengers and bystanders. According to the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc., drunk driving accidents cause close to 13,000 deaths each year, and hundreds of thousands of injuries.
How does alcohol affect the body?
Once alcohol enters the bloodstream, it can have a range of effects on the human body. There are numerous factors, which may affect these effects, including a person’s size and weight, the type of alcohol he or she has consumed, and how much he or she has had to drink. People may begin to experience the effects of alcohol after drinking only a small amount.
According to the Centers for Disease Control
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The effects that alcohol consumption has on the body can significantly impair a person’s ability to safely operate a motor vehicle. Some of the most common effects of alcohol consumption on drivers include the following:
• Decreased ability to track moving targets, such as other vehicles
• Reduced ability to multi-task and focus on the task of driving
• Difficulty steering, controlling speed, braking appropriately and maintaining proper lane position
• Diminished response to emergency situations while driving
• Perception impairments
• Decreased information processing
Often, people underestimate the effects that alcohol consumption may have on their bodies, and the impact those effects could have on their ability to drive safely. As a result of these misjudgments, people often feel that they are safe to drive, or that they are actually better drivers after having a couple of drinks. This type of negligent behavior often leads to alcohol-related collisions, which have potentially serious consequences for
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
Causes of drinking and driving are various. Some partake in this crime to gain attention from their peers, while some do it solely because their judgment is impaired and it seems like it is not that big of a deal. After the consumption of alcohol, the brain basically processes information at a slower pace than usual. For example, if a drunk person is driving, they cannot see objects at a distance. They also cannot fully pay attention to his or her surroundings, specifically on the road (Mendralla & Grosshandler
Let me tell you that the majority of automobile accidents in America results from alcohol. The alcohol consumed will be existed in blood and it is known as Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC). In this condition, someone will experience lowered alertness which can cause someone to loss of judgement and reduce their ability to track moving object. Beside lowered alertness, the muscle control will be lessened causing difficulty steering and less ability to maintain lane position and brake appropriately. People in a state of drunkenness are also hard to detect danger. It may reduce their response to emergency driving situations.
People like to go to parties and have fun all the time and what’s a party without alcohol, right? The problem with drinking at parties, however, is that many don’t know that they have become drunk and end up driving around after they leave the party. Drunk driving is dangerous and those driving that have high blood alcohol content or concentration (BAC) increases their risk of causing or being a part of accidents such as vehicle crashes or highway injuries (“Driving,” n.d.). The article “About Drunk Driving” (n.d.) states that every 53 minutes on average, someone is killed in a drunken driving crash and every 90 seconds, someone is injured.
“In the hands of an impaired driver, a vehicle becomes a murderous weapon.” ( ) Everyone can think of someone who has driven impaired, or even maybe you have done it yourself. The fact that one can think of someone who has driven impaired is a problem. Too many people are getting behind the wheel after drinking, smoking; or are not paying attention while they drive. Impaired driving continues to a problem although strides have been made to make a difference. There are many different types of impaired driving, each that have their own consequences. These types, and consequences will be explored in this essay.
“Automobiles are not ferocious.... it is man who is to be feared,” as Robbins B. Stoeckel remarked, enumerates a simple, yet fundamental concept- a vehicle in itself is a relatively safe, that is, until you put a person behind the controls. Further adding to the danger is the ever prevalent risk of a fellow driver being impaired by the usage of alcohol; perhaps the only thing that may make such a situation even more difficult and dangerous is one who is under the legal alcohol drinking age. Fewer situations are more life threatening than when an underage driver has been illegally consuming alcohol, yet persists in the belief that he or she retains the ability to drive safely. Thoughts along this line are foolish at best and deadly at
We’ve all heard the phrase don’t drink and drive but how many people listen to this common sense. According to a statistic taken by the Century Council, 31 percent of car fatalities involved alcohol in 2013. Around fifty thousand claims of alcohol overdose is reported annually, what is seen as a social drink or a good times drink is
Alcohol-impaired driving fatalities were 1,028 in 2008 for the state of California (Century Council). Of those deaths, 68% of the drivers were considered “Hardcore Drunk Drivers”; drivers who had a BAC level of 0.15+ (Century Council). Unfortunately, the drivers who got behind the wheel of those vehicles now have to deal with the fact that they slaughtered a person(s), because they made the choice to drive their car when they knew they had consumed alcohol.
Driving under the influence has affected many people's lives and families. Today I would like to talk to you about the problems of drinking and driving, and why it is a concern for all of us. Driving under the influence is one of the most common and dangerous situations you can put yourself or someone else in. The fact is that drinking and driving is a huge deal and can leave a long trail of broken dreams and hearts. If you drink and drive, not only are you putting yourself at risk, but your passengers and the pedestrians outside of your vehicle. According to the most recent statistics by the National Commission Against Drunk Driving states that 17,000 Americans die each year in alcohol- related traffic crashes and 600,000 Americans
This pattern often encourages people to drink more to keep the buzz going." ( Net Biz Mentor ). When people get like that they usually get a little bolder and want to do normal tasks and routines like driving a motorized vehicle. The effects of alcohol result in poor coordination, slurred speech, double vision, decrease of self-control, lost of consciousness and maybe even death.
The physical results of drinking alcohol can be life-threatening. Within moments of ingestion, alcohol moves from the blood stream into every part of the body that contains water. (Vasap.state/effects.com November 30) This includes major organs like the brain, lungs, kidneys, and heart. (Vasap.state/effects.com November 30) Alcohol stimulates and agitates, depresses and sedates, produces
“Have one drink for the road” was, until recently, a commonly used phrase in American culture. It has only been within the past 20 years that as a nation, we have begun to recognize the dangers associated with drunk driving (Sutton 463). According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, this year 519,000 people, or one person per minute, will be injured in alcohol-related accidents. 10,839 people will die in drunk-driving crashes this year – that is one death every 50 minutes. The heartbreaking part is, every injury and lost life due to driving after drinking can be prevented. Drinking while driving “accidents” are not merely “accidents.” Getting in a vehicle after consuming alcohol, which severely affects the function of
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
In conclusion, many people do not realize that being intoxicated while driving, using cellular phones and teenage drivers may bring serious injuries to everybody. Some people may enjoy drinking without care until they get into car accident, which can even result in