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Persuasive Essay On Drinking And Driving

Decent Essays

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.

Research Findings
People seem to get the wrong impression that alcohol is classified as a stimulant or “upper”, but in actuality alcohol is a depressant. The short term physical effects depend on the blood-alcohol level. It ranges from random changes in mood to complete lack of coordination, impaired vision, lack of balance and slurred speech. However, larger amounts of blood alcohol can strongly effect brain functioning and eventually cause a person to “black out”. In examining the thought process for drinking and driving behavior, Kulick and Rosenberg (1999) found that while the majority of their college student sample frequently drove after drinking, these students rationalized this behavior in a variety of ways. The most commonly found reasons for driving under the influence of alcohol were the strong desire to get to a specific destination (e.g., home), convincing oneself as being only slightly intoxicated, and/or believing

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