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Consequences of drinking and driving essay
Effects of drunk and drive
Effects of drunk and drive
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Effects of Drinking and Driving 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. Long Term Consequences Many people only think of the short-term consequences of drinking and driving. Such as getting a DUI, losing their license or having their car impounded. It’s not until after posting bail and finding a ride home that the reality of it all starts to sink in. Losing your license alone can make drastic changes in your life, which as a result will affect your family’s lives. How will you get to work? Drive anyway and get a charge for driving on a suspended license? Will you be able to keep your job or find another with a criminal record? How are you going to replace the bill money you …show more content…
used to get your vehicle out of the impound yard? How will you get to your son’s baseball game? The list of long term effects goes on and on. Needless Accidents We all know drinking and driving is a common reason for accidents on the roads today, but to look at the statistics in Delaware alone is frightening.
According to MADD, in 2012 30% of traffic deaths were a result of drunken driving fatalities. There were over 1200 accidents caused by drunk driving, with over 700 injuries. It’s not always the person drinking that is affected by these accidents. Innocent people are seriously injured and even killed every day as a result of other people drinking and driving. Why should they or their families pay for this bad judgment? The worst part is these accidents are preventable. If you are going to drink be responsible enough not to drive. It’s not just your life that could be
affected. Costs The financial and psychological effects of drinking and driving can be devastating. In addition to the bail and impound fees, are lost wages for court appearances, DUI classes, higher insurance rates, plus paying for other means of transportation. In most states the estimated legal cost of a DUI is roughly $5000. Not including lost wages. Even if you weren’t involved in an accident, injuring yourself or anyone else, you will still feel tremendous guilt for the sacrifices everybody around you has to make. There will be shame and embarrassment often resulting in depression. The psychological effects don’t stop with you. Have you ever talked to someone who has gotten a DUI about the effects on their family? They often feel many mixed emotions including fear, anger, and anxiety. A DUI can tear your marriage and family life apart. Conclusion The effects of drinking and driving can be devastating and life changing not only for the driver, but for many innocent people. Whether it is a sport event, or field trip missed with your child because you have no way of getting there, or a vacation that has to be cancelled because the money was used to cover your legal expenses, everybody pays for that mistake. If somebody were seriously injured or killed, there are many family and friends of the victim whose lives will never be the same. It’s not just your life. Too many times we don’t think about those affected by our lives and our decisions. For everything we do there is someone, somewhere that is affected. If you are going to drink have a designated driver. Not just for your safety, but for the safety of everyone.
I think that it is agreed by all parties that the prodigious number of sober drivers in our neighborhoods, city streets, and country roads is at present deplorable to the state of our great nation. Currently, a whopping ninety-eight percent of Americans of driving age feel threatened by those who drive under the influence of alcohol, which means that only two percent of Americans are able to fully relax and enjoy themselves while on the road, and with the growing awareness, this number could be on the rise (MADD Online: General Statistics 1). What a travesty! All drivers, and passengers alike, should be put at the same risk for danger, be it damage, injury, or death.
As you can see, drunk driving can cause many tragedies on a family or just the nation in general. Many people think that if we lower the Body Alcohol Content than there wouldn’t be as many people getting injured or killed a year. The question “Should tougher DUI laws be enacted?” is yet to be answered, but maybe in there next few years we will get an
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,...
Main Point I: I’d like to start off by talking about the penalties of drinking and driving. Did you know that drunk driving is the nation’s most frequently committed violent crime? A chronic drunk driver is a person who has driven over 1,000 times before being caught. They do not respond to social pressures, law enforcement, and the messages that have been combined to reform the drinking and driving behavior of our society.
Driving under the influence is extremely dangerous. Those who drink and drive tend to have an increased risk of car accidents, highway injuries, and vehicular fatalities. However, there are countless ways to prevent drunk driving. Professor David J. Hanson at the sociology department at the State University of New York states that “designated drivers have saved nearly 50,000 lives and spared many more thousands of people from suffering injury from drunk driving. It is a proven fact that almost 30 people in the US die every day in a motor vehicle accident involving a driver impaired by alcohol.” Every accident caused by drunk driving is one hundred percent preventable.
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.
Driving under the influence of alcohol is a serious offense and people can get in big trouble for it if they are caught, especially if they have multiple offenses. Nobody wants to be in trouble for something they can easily avoid. People don’t believe they’ll get in trouble at the moment but end up being caught and thrown in jail. Many people are in the drunk tank every day and they really deserve it.
One common consequence of drunk driving is peer influences. People have hard relationships between alcohol consumption and risk of experiencing social consequences. In addition at a young age or believing that alcohol use is not harmful, peer influence, family experience, school factors, alcohol being a peer interaction, and disapprover of alcohol use or do not drink. Peer influences can be a problem with drunk driving because having friends who use alcohol or who believe that alcohol is use acceptable. “High school students who use alcohol or other substances are five times more likely to drop out of school” (Hingson). Family experience can also be a problem with drunk driving because heavy alcohol use by parents, sibling, or any parental supervision can be cause of the start of drinking. Peer friendships are viral due to the lack of peer influences. “Teens who drink alcohol teen to have opposite sex friends who do the same thing” (Join Together Staff). Peer drinking is more than an influence. It could come from their own parents who start drinking. If kids see parents or friends drinking they will think it is okay to drink. When kids were little they looked up to their parents and thought everything was okay to do. When a little kids saw an adult drinking they thought it was okay to do while growing up.
When someone makes the decision to consume alcoholic beverages, it should go without saying that they should also be choosing to be a responsible drinker. Being a responsible drinker means not consuming more alcohol than their body can handle and more importantly, not getting behind the wheel of any type of vehicle after drinking. In an article written by high school student Steven Engler, he says it well; “If you choose to use it, do it responsibly, and don’t put anyone’s life in danger, including your own.” (New York Times, 2003) No matter the person’s age or the type of alcohol consumed, alcohol lowers a person’s inhibitions and ability to think clearly, while also increasing their chances of engaging in risky activities. It is possible for a person to have a few drinks, relax and have a good time however, all too often people overdo it and end up making bad decisions that they most often regret. Many times, the worst of these decisions is convincing themselves that they are “fine” and what they drank will not impair their driving. Some may say that these individuals simply “made a mistake.” Yes, everyone does make mistakes however, driving while intoxicated is not a mistake that affects only them, it is something that affects and risks the lives of many people and themselves. The sad thing is that drunk driving is one hundred percent preventable and therefore the loss of lives due to the recklessness of drinking and driving is preventable as well. Mr. Bloomberg hit the nail on the head when he said “Simply put, drunk driving is selfish, criminal and it kills, and we are not going to tolerate it.” (New York Times, 2002) Drinking and driving is a selfish act made by a person who seemingly does not care about the people around th...
Knowing that their license will be revoked on their first crime would make them think of the consequences before going behind the wheels. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, first time drunk drivers are subjected to license revocations which varies from state to state and ranges from ninety days to a year. While those who earn their second or third DUI conviction face having license revoked for another two to five years. Nevertheless, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has confirmed that about fifty to seventy percent have continued to drive without license. Out of the thirty-three percent of people who has revoked license about twenty percent them are repeated offenders. (NHTSA, extent of driving) Looking at this statistics surprisingly people still drive drunk after being caught once. People who have been convicted more than four times are given probation and then their license are given back to them. The law is too lenient, and the law enforcement are not rebuffing these people to the full extent, which gives people the motivation to do it again. I think people will learn their lesson if a first time offender’s license is to be revoked for at least five to ten years, and for second or third time offenders, permanent license revocation should be made mandatory. Possibly, people will start to understand the consequences they will face if caught driving under the
Alcohol is something that people use to help with multiply different things and some studies have shown that alcohol may help protect our bodies from cardiovascular disease. Alcohol does have side effects to our health the surroundings around us and can cause violence, vehicle crashes and even suicide. Alcohol does have an effect on people that many social drinkers may not realize. Many people usually have tried alcohol around 13 years of age and high school students consume more wine coolers that are sold in the U.S. and they drink more than 1 billion beers a year. To understand the effects of alcohol, it begins with the brain. It is a curiosity as to why people feel the need to drink and drive. The way the brain works while influenced with alcohol has always fascinated me. Drinking and driving is one of the biggest decisions that alcohol leads to. The National Public Services Research Institute (NHTSA) did a study on 600 people who admitted driving while under the influence of alcohol. They described in detail the decisions they made leading up to the occurrence of driving while impaired like whether to take part in a drinking event, how to get to the event, how much to drink, and how to get home. The people being interviewed revealed more than 2,000 individual decisions that led to alcohol impaired driving. The decisions were then broken down into several categories as shown on the graph attached. Little is known as to what leads people to continue to drinking and driving. But as research shows, people do think, prior to drinking, how they will get home. It’s after they have already had been drinking that they decide to get behind the wheel.
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
There is no argument that drinking and driving is bad because so many people are put at risk when someone does drive drunk. Teenagers drink, which is against the law to begin with, but also drive while they are intoxicated. This is bad because teenagers are still growing and are at the age of rebellion, so alcohol has a different effect on teenagers than adults. Teenagers feel that they are grown up enough to make adult decisions, but drinking and then driving is a sure sign of immaturity. In many studies researchers have found that the number one cause of death among young adults are car crashes and out of all of those, nearly half are alcohol related. Long-term loss of drivers license and large fines and possible jail time, are consequences of driving drunk for persons twenty-one years and younger. There is zero tolerance in all fifty states and D.C. for underage drinking and driving.
Alcohol consumption not only does harm to the drinker, sometimes it also hurts the innocent people in a terrible way: drunk driving. Alcohol affects you by changing your judgments, depth perception as well as vital motor skills required to drive safely. Without a clear mind, immeasurable
Many people in the United States enjoy a drink of their favorite alcoholic beverage. It could be a nice ice cold beer after a hard day of work or going to the bar and enjoying a few shots or mixed drinks with friends. Drinking alcohol is a common way to mingle with friends and take the edge off a difficult day. However, there are dangers involved with alcohol since it does dampen the body’s ability to cope with new information. Alcohol becomes a poison to the body when consumed in large quantities. The biggest danger is not to the driver after they become inebriated, but comes to anyone the drunk driver comes in contact with. A sober person can be dangerous just by being distracted, but a drunk driver’s ability to cope with changing situations and distractions is one of the biggest hazards on today’s roads. Some individuals believe that they are not as impaired as what they are led to believe from government ads and the many videos that show what can happen to someone who is drinking and driving. Although, there are many policies in place to advocate against drunk driving, there are those who would endanger themselves and others with their thoughtless actions when they jump into the driver’s seat of a vehicle. Drinking and driving should never be combined because a person who has been drinking does not have the ability to use all mental faculties unimpaired, many people have been killed, injured, or psychologically hurt by a drunk driver, many men and women do not know the difference weight and gender have on the body’s ability to process alcohol, and the financial and legal trouble that is awaiting for those convicted by a DUI.