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Drunk driving and its effects
Drunk driving and its effects
Drunk driving and its effects
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THINK BEFORE YOU DRINK AND THE EFFECTS OF DRINKING UNDER THE INFLUENCE CARLA MORRIS ITT TECHNICAL INSTITUTE My friend Lina has son a twelve-year-old boy named Bradley. He and his friend Chris were walking from a birthday party only a couple of blocks from Bradley’s home. As they crossed the street, Bradley heard a loud roaring sound coming very quickly towards them. The sound of the roar was a car that was swerving as it began to come faster towards them. The car lights were turned off, so they didn’t notice the car until it got really close to them. They tried to run as quickly as they could, but the car was much faster than them. Chris managed to get off the street, and as he looked back, they saw the car driving towards Bradley. Chris was taken to the hospital, and unfortunately was paralyzed from the neck and Bradley died two days later from the forceful impact of the vehicle that dragged him for one mile. All this was the result of drunk driving. When is the last time that you took a sip of alcohol? Did you drive soon after? When I start to think about drinking and driving I automatically think that everyone does it. I have at some point seen everyone that I have associate with in life at one point drink and drive. It seems the more people that do drink and drive, the more acceptable it seems amongst peers until they get caught and charged. Alcohol has been around since the early days of man. Anthropologists have discovered evidence that fermented beverages were produced as early as 10,000 B.C. As man abandoned nomadic lifestyles and created village and towns, clean water supplies would not last. The source of the water eventually became tainted by animals, the tribes use, or by another tribe upstream contaminating the... ... middle of paper ... ...nders Under Correctional Supervision (June 1999:1). “In 2012, an estimated 750,200 offenders were on probation or in jail or prison for driving while intoxicated by alcohol (DWI): 654,500 on probation, 21,100 in Jail, and 17,600 in state prison”. Want a life experience that will lead to feelings of depression, hopelessness, and thoughts of suicide? That's what can happen when you choose to drink and drive. If you drink and drive, and kill someone, you will have feelings of regret and guilt. This can lead to severe mental health issues, and possibly being hospitalized for depression. The one time that you drink and drive may lead into several times but is it really worth your financial stability and your pride? If you have to take a drink, stay at home. It’s not worth waking up in a cold jail cell with no one around that can help or taking a life or even yours.
Impaired driving is a very significant problem within our society. Impaired driving is defined in Canada as operating a vehicle (including cars, trucks, boats, snowmobiles and off-road vehicles) while under the influence of alcohol or drugs. It is recognized as a crime under the Criminal Code of Canada. Despite a sizeable drop in the impaired driving rate since the mid-1980s, impaired driving is the leading cause of criminal death in Canada. It is a major issue that is taken very lenient but is far more dangerous than people actually consider it to truly be. Driving under the influence does not only put the person operating the vehicle in potential danger and harm, but also has the potential to do harm towards innocent others. With this being said, the punishments regarding the accused’s conviction of crimes related to impaired driving should be far stricter than the current punishments in order to stop impaired driving within our flawed society. This stated, these are my following reasons as to why I believe that the punishments of impaired driving should be stricter.
In the year 2001 more then 800,000 injuries occurred in the United States from alcohol related accidents, while more than 40% of automobile crashes were due to the abuse of alcohol (MADD homepage). These overwhelming statistics are just a small piece of the very large puzzle that stuns the nation with deaths every year. For some people, these statistics are more than just phrases on paper they are words that are haunting reminders of the tragedies and losses they have experienced in their lifetime. One such mother was so distraught by the loss of her thirteen year old daughter Carrie Lightner, who was killed by a drunk driver, began the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). On the other side of the country another mother was feeling the same pain as her five and a half month old daughter, Laura Lamb, took her last breath after a drunk driver struck their car. Together these women joined forces to share their sufferings with others in the same situation, while striving to prevent future accidents and conditions such as the ones they had just experienced.
If one person decides to drive home drunk from a party then that person has a chance of getting into a head on collision with others. That choice to drive drunk has just endangered countless lives of innocent people on the road.
Driving is a privilege Americans have been afforded since the invention of the automobile in the late 1800’s. Yet with great power comes great responsibility. One of the responsibilities associated with being able to drive several tons of metal at high speeds is the responsibility of doing so without any distractions or impairments. Choosing to drive drunk puts not only the driver in danger, but also everyone else in the car and on the road. Currently, the average drunk driver will drive eighty times before getting caught by the police (1). On average, one third of all people will be involved in a drunk driving accident during the course of their lifetimes (7). Whereas driving drunk once can be seen as a mistake and a one-time lapse in judgment, choosing to recklessly ignore the law and the safety of others is a serious offense against society. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that one in three persons arrested for drunk driving are repeat offenders (2).
No one can deny that driving drink has caused traffic deaths and injuries. Drunk driving is one of the most frequently committed crimes in the United States, killing someone approximately every 48 minutes. Drunk driving is “A time when humans willingly enter cages of glass and steel that move in such great numbers at such terrific speed, that subtle turn of the steering wheel can easily result in death” (Thomas). What possesses a person to get ...
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.
Effects of Drinking and Driving I’ve never seen drinking and driving on a daily planner or heard anyone say I think I’ll get a DUI today. I have heard people say “it’s my life, and if I want to drink and drive I will”. Well, it’s not just your life that is affected by the results of drinking and driving. When you make that choice to drink and drive you are taking the lives of family, friends, and strangers into your hands. You don’t have to get into an accident and kill somebody for the results to destroy you or someone else’s life. Drinking and driving can be the cause of many traumatic life changing events.
Drunk driving is a completely needless crime due to it not being obligatory and completely recreational. According to the DMV, every 53 minutes, someone is killed by a drunk driver and every 90 seconds, someone is injured. That totals to about 350k people affected physically by someone driving under influence. That also doesn’t include the families affected by the fatalities or injuries. Almost one out of every three traffic deaths involves drunk driving and one in three people will be involved in a drunken driving crash in their lifetime. Some may believe that driving “tipsy” is not as ba...
There are a lot of stories about drunk driving victims and families who lost many loved ones. There was one story online that hit me hard and shows what families have to go through when this happens. This story was about a woman named Candace and her daughter Cari, who was only thirteen. One evening in 1980, Cari was walking in their neighborhood and a drunk driver ran over her and killed her. The driver ran away from the scene. When Candace found out, she was devastated and went into depression. It would be hard for any parent to lose a child. But, Candace wanted justice for her daughter and went to the cops and demanded that they find the culprit of her daughter’s death. She never relinquished on her daughter and just wanted tried over and over again. The cops found the drunk driver two days later and they did investigation. The drunk driver was in an accident a week before for drunk driving. The driver was sentenced for two years but his jail time wasn’t spent in jail. The punishment wasn’t a long enough and wasn’t a fair. Candace couldn’t stand that her daughter had died and the criminal was walking around freely. Candace went into depression and didn’t really do anything. This was a problem for parents back in 1980s because laws weren’t really strict and people like drunk drivers took advantage of that (cars of america 2). Imagining the pain that they Candace had to go
Drinking is never a good idea, and when you throw in driving you have a deadly combination. “Each year, nationally, more than 1,000 people typically die between Thanksgiving and New Years in drunk driving crashes” (Cismaru). The effects of drunk driving are very serious and need to have action taken to stop it. Some of the severe effects of drunk driving are: car crashes, jail time, and worst of all death. One of the biggest effects of drunk driving is the car crashes caused by the drivers that are under the influence of alcohol.
Drinking and driving is a big issue throughout the world causing many accidents. Intoxicated drivers go behind the wheel all the time causing harm to not just themselves but to innocent people on the roads. The question is to stay sober or to find a designated driver. People need to understand how important it is to not drink and drive. There are many things that could occur due to drinking and driving. Individuals can cause accidents and many face legal repercussions. These legal repercussions can even affect your life later on, if not right away.
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
Drunk driving is extremely impactful on the lives of you and others. While drinking and driving, you are not just endangering yourself, you are also endangering the lives of others. The driver of the car does not just control the car with their hands and feet. They need their brain to function properly so that you are able to react to objects on the road quicker and control the car. If you drink then drive/ drink while driving. Alcohol affects your brain in many ways that inhibit your ability to drive. Alcohol will affect your reaction time, it slows your reflexes which decrease your ability to react to objects on the road. It affects your vision, in can impair your color perception, and night vision. It slows down the movement in the muscles in your eye causing your visual perception to change. Alcohol affects your ability to track. You will not be able to judge the position of cars ahead of you, you won’t be able to judge the
Reckless driving is extremely dangerous and is considered to be anyone who is driving with carelessness and/or who has no regard for the safety of others on the road. Reckless driving is considered to be a misdemeanor. A misdemeanor is a criminal act that is less severe then receiving a felony. Your punishments are also not as severe as penalties. Penalties for reckless driving include fines of up to $1,000, jail time, getting your parole revoked, two points on your driving record, insurance rates to go up, insurance can be cancelled and/or license suspension. Reckless driving includes speeding, not using signals, not using your headlights, disregarding traffic signs and signals, distracted driving, drag racing, and using a cell/smartphone while driving. In some cases a DUI can be deemed a “dry reckless”, which means the person was driving with disregard for others on the road. This charge is less serious then a DUI charge. If you have been pulled over for DUI and believe that it could be reduced to a “dry reckless” you should contact an attorney right away. Drag racing or a speed co...