Should people pulled over for DUI have their license suspended for life? Alcohol affects countless individuals these days. Mostly everyone can think of a loved one or a friend who drinks, and sadly, maybe one who drinks and drives. Society would think strict laws from hefty fines and license suspension would teach the right lesson for drunk drivers. So many drunken drivers go unnoticed and are never pulled over. License suspension is not the answer to solving this issue. A drunk driver who receives more than one DUI has to pay not only a hefty penalty, but likely a lawyer and a taxi since they no longer have their license to get around. Anger, depression and lack of money are only going to make this person drink more, especially if there is an addiction. This harsh treatment is not the proper fix to this ongoing issue. Suspending a driver’s license for life after receiving a DUI charge generates countless negative effects and demonstrates more harm than good. Alcohol increases impairments and makes driving riskier. (CGA) Impaired thinking, reasoning and muscle coordination are all crucial skills needed to work a vehicle safely. Driving while intoxicated is so serious that every day 28 people die within the US of an alcohol related vehicle crash. (NHTSA.gov) Even more concerning is most offenders who finally get caught have driven drunk at least 80 times prior. (MADD) An offender finally pulled over would receive a citation, likely a penalty to pay and possible a suspension
Every day twenty-seven people die as a result of drunk driving which equates to approximately 10,000 people a year. Driving under the influence is a crime when a person’s blood level of alcohol exceeds the legal limit of 0.08%. Standard penalties against first time offenders include: having their driver’s licenses revoked and paying a fine ranging from $500-$2,000. All drunk drivers should be imprisoned for eight or more months because they are likely to repeat the offense, they cause most automobile fatalities/injuries, and drivers can participate in rehabilitation programs while incarcerated.
A DUI conviction is a permanent part of ones driving record. Even though alcohol related accidents are on the decline, statistics show that a drunk driver kills someone every forty-five minutes. More so, fifty to seventy percent of drunk drivers whose licenses are suspended continue to drive. In 2000, alcohol related crashes cost the public $114.3 billion dollars! Drunk driving carries with it serious penalties from the court system and car insurance companies. One moment of fun can turn into a lifetime of heartache and tragedy. Therefore, it is not worth the risk. Possible prevention measures and solutions are not only for the law enforcement, but for the public as well. Drunk drivers face a hardcore court system, which is intolerant of DUI. Stricter penalties such as automatic licenses revocation, mandatory jail sentencing, vehicle impounding, and licenses plate confiscating are just a few ways the judicial system is handling the DUI problem. Programs such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against Drunk Driving have led the way to bringing awareness to society. People need to be responsible and supervise their consumption to ensure that they do not drink too much. They have a moral and a legal responsibility to make sure of this. It is always best to have a designated driver. The most effective way people can prevent driving drunk is to make a personal decision not to drink
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
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.
The most devastating consequence of driving under the influence is the loss of life. My great grandma Mary was hit and killed by drunken priest and my great grandpa Felix hit and killed a man while drinking and driving. As tragic as these deaths were, they both could have been prevented. Moms Against drinking and driving, (MADD) website states that every two minutes, a person is injured in drunk driving crash. When drivers chose to drink and drive, they are risking their lives, and the lives of
DUI offenders should be obligated to give up their license for at least a minimum of one year. First of all, offenders are harmful not just to themselves but also to the people around them. For instance, if they were to get into some car crash offenders could cause damage to other people and to other people’s property. Death is a major factor in the offender’s life. For example, they could run over the curb and kill the little kid on the sidewalk, or when they crash the impact could be too hard and kill the offenders or kill the other people or even worse kill them both. Secondly, DUI offenders are irresponsible in many ways, such as, drunk drivers are mentally impaired and not in a position to drive a “deadly weapon”. Also they made the choice
You would think that if a person gets pulled over, arrested, gets his/her license suspended and gets court ordered to pay 250+ dollars in fines, that they would never get behind the wheel under the influence again and endanger someone else’s life. Wrong. According to a 2007 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety study over half of drivers arrested for drunk driving in the nation are repeat offenders. All states have adopted 21 as the legal drinking age. Two-thirds of the states have now passed Administrative License Revocation (ALR) laws, which allow the arresting officer to take the license of drivers who fail or refuse to take a breath test. All states have now lowered the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit from .10 to .08 percent for adults, and all states have passed Zero Tolerance laws which prohibit drivers under twenty-one from having any amount of alcohol in their blood system. The penalties have increased for drinking and driving, yet the repeated offenders percentages haven’t decreased. Thus proving, what the laws are doing now is not working and they need to be raised. Going back to the purpose of punishment, if people keep doing the same thing, than the consequences before did not faze them and need to be stricter.
"The problem with drinking and driving is the mourning after", a very simile quote has such a huge meaning behind it, in my family's case we got off lucky. It was a late night, my father received the phone call, I don't think I've seen that look ever in his eyes the 18 years I've been alive. It was about his brother he had gotten in a very catastrophic accident after making the horrible choice to drink and drive. It seemed like the longest drive to Dallas which is where my uncle was airlifted to go into surgery. We arrived at the hospital and were told he was unconscious so I waited in the waiting room with my cousins to comfort them while my aunt and dad were in the room with my uncle. After sitting in the gloomy waiting room for what seemed life forever I decided to take my cousins home we stopped by to get food. His choice to drink and drive was a very bad one, he was unfit to make such a big choice while not in the correct state of mind he had alcohol in his system and lots of it, he had no right to endanger not only his life but every other person that was around him while he was driving. Statistics show that Texas is the leading state for drunk driving cases and Harris county alone had 362 deaths in 2015 alone, driving under the influence not only has physical damage that can be done there's the emotional side that people have to deal with and what the families go through, drunk driving has more effects than just what just meets the eye. Drunk drivers
Drinking and driving can cause a lifetime of pain. When you get under the wheel while you are intoxicated not only are you putting yourself at risk, but also the lives of other innocent people are in danger. Everyone should have the right to drink but if you act irresponsibly, your right should be taken away. Each person is liable to suffer the consequences from endangering others. One who drives drunk not only should have their license taken away, they should have the right to drink taken away. Drinking and driving may not seem like a big deal until you see what happens when things go wrong. I would like you to read a personal narrative that Casey McCary Bloom wrote who is now serving 21 years to life in prison.
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 legal consequences of drunk driving are also severe. The more a person drinks, the more their ability to make important decisions wear down and becomes impaired. After even just one drink a person can lose the ability to operate a vehicle. At certain parts in the state of intoxication, it becomes illegal to drive a car and if you get caught it can possible lead to fines, or even imprisonment. The legal limit of alcohol you can consume changes from state to state, but the penalty of driving under the influence is always severe. Getting arrested and maybe being forced to sleep in a drunk tank is just some of the problems you also have to carry the humiliation and the shame of being caught and that person might just end up with their name written up in the local news paper. Alcoholism is a disease and it can make
The legal consequences of drunk driving are also severe. The more a person drinks, the more their ability to make important decisions wear down and becomes impaired. After even just one drink a person can lose the ability to operate a vehicle. At certain parts in the state of intoxication, it becomes illegal to drive a car and if you get caught it can possible lead to fines, or even imprisonment. The legal limit of alcohol you can consume changes from state to state, but the penalty of driving under the influence is always severe. Getting arrested and maybe being forced to sleep in a drunk tank is just some of the problems you also have to carry the humiliation and the shame of being caught and that person might just end up with their name written up in the local news paper. Alcoholism is a disease and it can make you do some things you would not want to and to repeat you're past mistakes. More than one-third of drives arrested for intoxication are repeat offenders. Drivers with a prior DUI offense have a much higher likelihood to be in a fatal
Drunk driving is a dangerous problem that needs to be addressed in our society, not only to cut back on the number of deaths caused by alcohol related accidents but also to ensure safety on public roads. Drunk driving is deliberately breaking the law, as well as a sign of indifference for other drivers.
Alcohol can cause a major accident on the road that also affects other. Just by opening a can of beer can lead us or someone else to death. “Every 2-hours, three people are killed in alcohol-related highway crashes”(Chambers, 2010). It may be easy, but the consequences don’t come to mind before. The consequences of driving and drinking “are arrests, property damage, injuries, and thousands of deaths each year “ (Chambers, 2010). One of my friends lost her mom about two years ago because a guy was driving under the influence of alcohol and was speeding where he lost control of the car and crashed into the car. Yes, the guy is still alive and the only one affected was my friend’s mom, she passed away on her way to Colorado to visit her family but sadly she never made
The more a person drinks, the more their ability to make important decisions erode and becomes impaired. After even just one drink a person can lose the ability to operate a vehicle. At certain parts in the state of intoxication, it becomes illegal to drive a car and if you get caught it can possible lead to fines, or even imprisonment. The legal limit of alcohol you can consume changes from state to state, but the penalty of driving under the influence is always severe. Getting arrested and maybe being forced to sleep in a drunk tank is just some of the problems you also have to carry the humiliation and the shame of being caught and that person might just end up with their name written up in the local news paper. Alcoholism is a disease and it can make you do some things you would not want to and to repeat your past mistakes. More than one-third of drives arrested for intoxication are repeat offenders. Drivers with a prior DUI offense have a much higher likelihood to be in a fatal crash. (National Commission Against Drunk Driving, 2003). Repeat offenders also face the risk of ruining their own lives. They have the risk of possibility losing their license and that could also result in the losing of their jobs if their employer finds out about the conviction.