How Does Drunk Driving Affect Society

Every 53 minutes someone dies from a drunk driver and every 2 minutes someone is injured from drunk driving (“About Drunk Driving”). Drunk driving is a huge problem and there are multiple solutions to decrease drunk driving. Families are affected by society's choice to drink and drive, not that society knows any better. This also costs money that could be spent on other, more important things and makes the roads completely dangerous for all drivers. Through all the issues drunk driving creates; there are solutions too- addicts could get medical help and society could help by raising awareness and talking to each other.
The first problem is drunk driving ruins victims and families (Thompson 18). So many people have been injured or killed in drunk driving accidents.

Victims in these car crashes usually don't come out alive or if they do- they don’t really have a life anymore. First off Brigid Kelly, honor roll student, athlete, popular, and nice, she got hit by a drunk driver and instantly died from head trauma (Gerdes 18). 19-year-old Jason Sumpf, he was hit in a hit and run and pronounced dead from extensive head injuries (Haley 47). Jerry Catarcio got hit by a drunk driver and lived! Hooray! But does he really live? His wife, Sherry Catarcio, has to take care of him. Jerry can not eat, drink, walk, talk, bathe, or go to the bathroom by himself. Scott Alan Keeler was in a drunk driving accident as a child and he lost his mother and father. He now suffers from a brain injury that limits movement on his left side, short-term memory loss, and lack of inhabitation (Thompson 19). It’s not only the victims that suffer from these drunk driving crashes, sometimes it's the driver. Larry Mahoney had a .20+ BAC. He crashed into a church bus and murdered 27 people (Haley 5). Drunk driving ruin families, kills people, and ruins lives of the killers. So why do it?
In addition, drunk driving isn't just an issue for making roads dangerous, but it takes lives, costs money, and injures a lot of people. In 1994 about 560,000 people were injured from drunk driving and about 18,000 were killed (Clayton 10). In 1995, 1,990 out of 72,667 accidents involved alcohol. Out of those 1,990- 122 were fatal (Haley 51). 2.7 million crashes involved alcohol in 1998. In the 2000’s numbers started to go down a bit. More drunk driving groups were popping up, like MADD. In 2000-2001 41% of all traffic fatalities involved alcohol (Gerdes 36). In 2002,17, 419 people died from drunk driving and in 2003 17,013 people died (Thompson 39). In 2002 1.5 million people were arrested for drunk driving. That's a big number, but for every arrest, there are 87 other drunk drivers that don’t get caught- that’s 130,500,000 drunk drivers not arrested (Tompson 40). Slowly our society has taken action and in 2005 there were only 16, 885 deaths dues to drunk driving. That’s just a start, but it’s 1,000 fewer lives taken.
Furthermore, our society needs to open their eyes to drunk driving and the issues alongside. Society doesn’t understand the worries of drunk driving. Remember when Justin Bieber got a DUI? Did that make you want to take action and solve drunk driving or did you shake your head and snicker? Of course, you didn’t care that he got a DUI. That’s because celebrity DUI’s entertain (Thompson 83). Mike Gimbel, a Baltimore consultant in substance abuse prevention, education, and training said, “A weekend night on any highway in this country is like Russian roulette.” This is because drunk driving is the most common crime (Clayton 10). Since drunk driving is the most common crime, why don’t they just get a license suspension so they can’t drive? It is the most popular solution, but unfortunately, 75% of people who get their license suspended still drive. A lot of people assume that teens and social drinkers do all the drinking and driving because they’re having fun with their friends and partying, but they’re not. Heavy drinkers and alcoholics are the ones who still haven’t gotten the message (Gerdes 61). It's not only the drivers feeding into the issue of drunk driving either. Establishments the serve alcohol keep serving alcohol to heavily intoxicated customers (Campo). Of course, there’s the need for money, but that money is going to be spent very quickly in the form of a funeral bill.
Sobriety checkpoints are a possible solution to reducing drunk driving. Jim Fell, MADD National Board member and director of traffic safety and enforcement programs with the Pacific Institute for research and evaluation (PIRE) said, “The single most important strategy out there to reduce drunk driving is sobriety checkpoints (Gerdes 38).” Drivers have to talk to police and pass passive alcohol sensors at sobriety checkpoints (Thompson 40). In addition, they also require a license check and a random breathalyzer sample. This would catch drunk drivers and drivers with a suspended license (Haley 66). A study showed that sobriety checkpoints could be a possible solution because it can cut down drunk driving by 20%. This solution may become a reality because, since 2005, 5,000 police officers have been trained as drug recognition experts (Gerdes 21).
Further, if society was aware of the dangers, then drunk driving would not be so severe.

Media needs to be on the issue. Drunk driving kills 15,000+ per year, yet news companies still put out less pressing news stories. If the news companies put out more pressing news stories, then employees of alcohol serving establishments would be more aware (Gerdes 21). Employers could train their front line servers on the right and wrong ways of serving customers (Campo 18). Some people don’t even know what BAC is and what it does. BAC is short for blood alcohol content. It tells us how much someone has been drinking that night. There are levels of BAC and each point has a different effect on human bodies. A .01 BAC, about half a beer, consists of divided attention, choice reaction time, and decreased visual function. .03-.06 BAC, one to two beers, would decrease eye movement control, result in little balance, slow reaction times, no information processing, and no judgment control. Last, a .07-.10 BAC, 3 beers, would do everything above no speed control (Gerdes 84). .10 BAC would be considered at illegally intoxicated, but 62.4% of alcohol-related accidents happened when someone had a .14 BAC (Haley

21).
Finally, one of the easiest solutions is if family talked to one another about this. Parents are one of teens biggest role model… aka you drink- they drink (“Parents…” 8). Sure, parents can have a couple of beers in front of their kids, but a lot of parents don’t discuss the dangers of alcohol. A survey conveyed by MADD and Nationwide insurance showed that about 80% of parents talk to their kids about drunk driving (“Parents…” 8). Well, why does it matter that parents talk to their kids about drunk driving? Well, a study showed that teens who have a connection to their parents are less likely to drink, drink and drive, and less likely to speed. Teens who spend time with their parents are also more likely to wear a seatbelt (Gerdes 33).
In conclusion, drunk driving kills and injures people each year. Thats lives and opportunities lost. You can talk to your family, raise awareness, or just not drink and drive- call an uber, taxi, or have a friend take you home. Since someone gets injured every 2 minutes from drunk driving- how many people were injured while you were reading this essay?