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Drunk driving and its effects
Drunk driving and its effects
Stricter laws for drunk driving
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Before the industrial revolution, America was unaware of the consequences of drunk driving. With no regulations in place, drivers could recklessly drive without violating the law. It was not until 1939 when Indiana was the first state to enforce a blood alcohol limit of .15. Which is two times the legal limit today ("A Short History of Drunk Driving"). MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) an organization established in the 1980 's, has become "...one of the most influential and widely supported non-profit organizations in America" (Mission Statement). MADD, created by Candace Lightner whose son, Cari was walking to a carnival in mid May. Struck by a drunk driver, Cari later died. The driver was found guilty of drinking and driving; it was …show more content…
Occasional traffic stops along highways are used to asses each drivers ' BAC. The goal of the sobriety checkpoints is two catch potentially dangerous drivers and eliminate deadly crashes before they happen. Studies have shown that "these checkpoints consistently reduced alcohol-related crashes, typically by 9%" ("Impaired Driving: Get the Facts"). Government has not stated if they plan to continue the use this tactic and make it more popular. One of the oldest techniques, that the government has been encouraging is the school-based instructional programs that discourage drunk driving. Program such as D.A.R.E have taught kids for years about the effect of alcohol and drugs. Special classrooms and courses also have been designed to help educate people about the dangerous consequences of making bad decisions. Drunk driving is more common than most people think "An average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before first arrest" ("The Economic and Societal Impact"). For this reason, government has issued DWI license plates or they are more commonly known as "Whiskey plates". These plates look different than the standard blue Minnesota plate and issued for over a year to the owner of the vehicle. These plates not only help police to know that the driver is dangerous, but help other cars on the road to report any suspicious behavior to the …show more content…
Ignition interlocks are connected to the engine allow the driver to blow into a hand-help breathalyzer that calculates the estimated BAC. The car will not start unless the BAC is under the legal limit of .08 ("Minnesota Ignition Interlock Device Program"). In some cases where drivers have outrageous BAC the government is allowed to revoke or suspend the license of any driver who proceeds as threat to the public. When a license is revoked it is lost for ninety days. In a case of suspension the license maybe lost forever. But on the negative side police have found that most people who have had their license revoked or suspended still continue to drive without being caught. Surely, not the most effective ways to remove menacing driver from the streets, but it may discourage some people from driving. For the ones who loss their loved one, the government strives to seek justice. Prison and jail are likely punishments for a felon who murdered a someone 's family member. Once found guilty, the criminal is sentenced to confined time in a jail cell. They spend their days in a jumpsuit while the outside world keeps going about normal life. The felon is faced with the guilt of unintentionally robbing someone of their own
The ignition interlock is a high tech system that eveuates the persons BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) to see if the individual has been drinking. The device works like a normal Breathalyzer. The device is mounted on the dashboard and in order for the car to start the individual must blow into the machine. The machine then evaluates the persons BAC and if that person shows no sign of alcohol use the car will start. If the results come back saying he has consumed alcohol the vehicle will not start. When the vehicle starts and has been for around an hour the person must again blow into the machine to once again evaluate the person’s condition. The maximum aloud limit is .04 mg of alcohol per 100mL of blood. Each time the individual uses the system and small computer records information. The system it self costs around 135.00 with a maintenance fee of about 100.00 a month.
"State Estimates of Drunk and Drugged Driving." The NSDUH Report. 31 May. 2012: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
...equiring ignition interlocks for every DUI offender. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, interlocks lower the re-arrest rate of drunken drivers by two-thirds. Actually, drivers with ignition interlocks have less alcoholic accidents than those who are punished by suspending their license. Some states have great success with interlocks already. After authorizing strict interlock laws in 2007, Arizona and Louisiana both cut drunken driving deaths by more than 36% in only four years. In a free society, it is too hard to try to reach zero carries. At least, it is clear that we will not see a large-scale push for DUI law reform in the near future. The fatality made by drunk driving will never be root out, but the government could prevent more suffering by using strategy already proven to work instead of making other laws that is not worth at all.
Why do we need breathalyzers in our cars? Well, it could just save your life and the lives of others. In a drunk driving accident in Minneapolis, 20 year old Brody Sotona was killed instantly and his friend in the passenger seat Connor Macklin in critical condition from the drunk driver, Yia Her (Latest News). Installing a breathalyzer or an interlock system in all standard vehicles can help prevent accidents like this one from happening. A breathalyzer is a device used for determining the content of alcohol from a sample of one’s breath. Robert Borkenstein invented it in 1954 while serving as an instructor in alcohol intoxication to find a different solution to practical problems associated with sampling blood for law enforcement purposes (SRInstitute). Because of the hazards associated with drinking and driving, laws need to be stricter about abusing alcohol and driving at the same time. People should have to take a mandatory class in high school or in college about the dangers of drinking and driving and the effects it can take on you or on others if you cause a wreck. To prevent fatal accidents while driving under the influence, all cars should have a built in breathalyzer.
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,...
Many temptations are faced in college culture and one of them is underage drinking and driving. Underage drinking and driving has essentially become an epidemic, rapidly developing among today’s youth. College culture has come to encourage drinking and driving through the places and people that surround the students (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, October 2002). Some people don’t see underage drinking as an issue, when in fact it is a huge issue that every teenager will face. Since underage drinking is illegal people want to rebel by drinking; additionally, alcohol is really easy to get ahold of in college. Since many students are going to drink, the first line of defense is to educate students about the effects of alcohol and what can happen if students do drink and drive. Unless we are able to put a stop to underage drinking and driving through education, and a system called smart start the problem wont get any better.
Law enforcements around the US have worked extremely hard to prevent drinking and driving. Checkpoints were established to help prevent DUIs. In Sedalia, for example, mostly they are on “big nights” such as prom, Fourth of July, and graduation. A DUI checkpoint is when police officers block the road with barriers or vehicles. Before being a loud to go through the checkpoint, the driver must have a conversation with the officer and present his or her driver’s license. If the driver is shown to have signs of drinking alcohol, the officer can give the driver a sobriety test or a Breathalyzer.
There is knocking at a door late at night, and there a policeman standing at the door with information that a family member was in an accident that involved a drunk driver. This is one of those things people hear and believe that it will not happen, but it happens every day. Every 40 minutes, someone in the U.S. is killed by a drunk driver and in 2008, in Montana, 40 percent of all traffic fatalities involved DUIs (“Drunk Driving” 1). Drunk Driving affects everyone and people in Montana should look at what other states do to find ways to make the laws tougher and more enforced.
Drunk driving has been an increasing problem for many years. One issue that contributes to this is that in the United States it is actually legal to drive with a certain alcohol percentage. The blood alcohol limit is 0.8 percent (Drunk Driving). This means that a person may drive legally as long as they have a blood alcohol percentage of 0.8 percent or under. However, even at a percentage of 0.3 there may be some impairment of alertness and concentration (Drunk Driving). Driving requires fast reflexes that may be impaired at a 0.5 percent blood alcohol level but a person with this level of intoxication is not legally drinking and driving. Many people are arrested for drunk driving. In 2009, more than 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving while under the influence (Drunk Driving). In addition, “an average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before their first arrest” (Get Involved). Therefore, there were a minimum of 112 million accounts of drunk driving in 2009 alone. Drunk drivers also cause an increasing number of deaths. Drunk drivers in the United States c...
There are programs now that educate people under the age of 21 about alcohol. These programs are being implemented in colleges around the country, and are about the choices of using alcohol. "At the University of Virginia they are taking a more of an old-fashioned approach to educating college students about alcohol use. They are using two, two-and-a-half hour courses in class rooms called "Choices". They are boasting high results from this program a total of 75 percent of participants said they planned to reduce how much they drink in the future, while 85 percent indicated they had spoken to a friend." (Altamirano). If these programs have high success rates, I think these programs should be put in high schools as well.
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
For many years, drunk driving casualties have been viewed differently. Many believe that drunk driving laws are strict while others believe that it is too lenient. In this generations, where alcohol is cheap and very accessible many tends to abuse it. This people who abuse alcohol is known as drunk drivers because after taking three or four drinks they still believe that they are not drunk and goes back to the wheel of their vehicle without thinking of what will happen next. This drunk drivers are willing to risk their lives and the lives of others because they are ashamed or too big to call a family member or a designated drivers to take them home. If they are lucky and did not die on their way home. Then they create this dangerous cycle of
Wisconsin is a state known for many things: cheese, football, and drinking. The culture of drinking is, out of these three one of the most prominent one of them all, particularly in our area of LaCrosse, Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, there is a total of 3,043 bars with 360 in LaCrosse alone. But with the drinking culture comes the issue known as drunk driving. Over the years, though it seems it’s getting worse and worse with each passing year as many are getting busted with DUI’s and OUI’s. In 2012 alone, 33,000 people were convicted of drunken driving related offenses in Wisconsin alone (Drunk Driving/Alcohol Related Traffic Offenses, 2014). Also, in a recent study done by the U.S. Department of Health and Services, Wisconsin had the highest rate
Although the safety of cars have improved over time, the same can't be said of their drivers. Driving under the influence of alcohol still kills thousands of people every year on our roads and highways in spite of public awareness campaigns and law enforcement efforts. The first line of defense against becoming a victim of drunk drivers is knowing how to identify them on the road and applying the right defensive driving techniques.
Countries”, written by Bryan Rookey, an Associate Professor at the University of Portland, is quoted “although driving a vehicle while intoxicated has been against the law, social definition of drunk driving has changed” (Rookey 4). The rate at which drunk drivers are pulled over and charged has increased more and more with every year, even with the laws that are in place. There are more and more people on the roads that could be charged with drunk driving. The fact that they could get lucky and not get caught is another