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Consequences of drinking and driving essay
Effects of driving while drunk
Consequences of drinking and driving essay
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Almost everyone in the United States drinks alcohol “ In 2014, 87.6 percent of people ages 18 or older reported that they drank alcohol at some point in their lifetime” according to National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. People drink alcohol for different reasons like celebrations, relaxing, peer pressure and/or boredom. The legal drinking age in the United States is twenty- one but “in 2014, an estimated 679,000 adolescents ages 12–176 (2.7 percent of this age group) had a drink.” “By age 15, about 33 percent of teens have had at least 1 drink. By age 18, about 60 percent of teens have had at least 1 drink. In 2015, 7.7 million young people ages 12–20 reported that they drank alcohol beyond “just a few sips” in the past month.” …show more content…
So if people can be taught to and educated on how to drive and what to do in the military people would be able to be taught how to drink responsibly. If parents teach their children at a young age the responsibly and the consequences of drinking irresponsibly and if it was reinforced in the school they should be able to lower the drinking age. “In 2014, 9,967 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third (31%) of all traffic-related deaths in the United States” but in the United Kingdom were the drinking age is 18” On average 3,000 people are killed or seriously injured each year in drink drive collisions” the United Kingdom is having 30% less traffic accidents then the United States because they are taught and very educated on drinking responsibly where as in the US it is just shrugged off topic in …show more content…
By allowing people 18 years or older be able to buy and consume alcohol it will boost the economy by allowing them in bars or restraint to have an alcoholic beverage they are more likely to eat witch will benefit the businesses and if that person has too much to drink they will have to get a cab to take then home. The more people to go into the restraint or bar and needing cabs will help the owner expand their businesses which will create jobs for people. With having 18 year olds drink in public with other adults they will learn how to drink reasonable by seeing how others act when having a drink and by have people there to stop others from getting to drunk by being able to have 18 year old drink in public, restraint bars and clubs will benefit because the younger crowed have more energy to go out after work and relax or to go out on a Saturday night with a group of
In the New York times article “Lower the Drinking age to 19” Mr.Steinberg points out the importance of why it might be more beneficial to the United States to lower the current drinking age. He debunked the common belief of underage drinking being linked to highway accidents, he explains instead of raising the drink age maybe we just raise the driving age to 18. He states that “Moreover countries that use 18 for both the drinking and driving age generally have safer highways that the United States.” Laurence Steinberg lower the drinking age New York times. Laurence then talk about the only reason why a higher drinking age would make sense is in the case
According to Center for Disease Control and Protection, about 4,700 people under age twenty one die from injuries involving underage drinking every year. Illegal alcohol consumption has been a major problem with high school students around the nation. Lowering the drinking age from twenty one would result in major consequences for America’s adolescents. By lowering the drinking age, alcohol would be more accessible to those who choose to participate in underage drinking. The desire to drink for teens and young adults between the ages of fourteen and twenty can be caused by peer pressure or an act of rebellion. One beer might not seem like a big deal at the time, but it could lead to a life of addiction and alcoholism.
Each year, about 5,000 teens are killed or injured in traffic crashes as a result of underage drinking and about 1,900 are due to car accidents. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and U.S. Department of Transportation) In the newsletter, safety in numbers by National highway traffic administration and U.S department of transportation “Of all the people who died in motor vehicle crashes during 2012, 31 percent died in crashes involving a drunk driver, and this percentage remains unchanged for the past 10 years” (Vol 1, 2013). Crashes involving alcohol include fatal crashes in which a driver had a BAC of .01 g/ ld. or higher (Underage Drinking Statistics)). Deadly crashes involving alcohol are twice as common in teens compared to people 21 and older. This is because teens’ judgment skills are harmed more by alcohol. Teens who drink not only risk hurting themselves, they risk hurting their friends, family, and even strangers when driving intoxicated. Teens and parents both need a strong reminder that underage drinking is illegal and can have disastrous consequences. According to Health Day News, “one study found that in 2011, 36 percent of U.S. college students said they'd gone binge drinking (five or more drinks in one sitting) within the past two weeks, as compared to 43 percent of college students in 1988. Since 2006, the current law has reduced the rate of drunk driving crashes among young Americans” (Preidt, 2014 and DeJong, 2014). This proves that lives have been saved after the legal drinking age increased. According to an article in Time Magazine called “Should the Drinking Age Be Lowered?”, “lowering the drinking age to 18 would stop infantilizing college students, but it would probably kill mor...
If teenagers that are now turning 18 can vote, then they should be able to drink at the age of 18. If teens are 18 and old enough to vote, they should be able to drink. Saying they can vote, is calling them responsible and mature enough to pretty much vote. At age 18, teens are now called adults and vote. It’s the legal adulthood (“Drinking”). Voting requires a lot of adult decision making. It is a hard choice to put your vote that could help or make worst of America. If they can defend our country, they should at least enjoy a drink when they have time. 18 is old enough for the military and they risk their life. They’re defending our country, so they should have the right to have a drink when they get back from duty. It’ll cut down on young adults drinking, there wouldn’t be much of a rush to underage drink. If they’re being trusted to drive, such as speeding, on the phone, reading, putting makeup on, etc. What’s the harm done in just drinking, if all that happens when people drive. 19 out of the 50 states in the US has not specified that the drinking age is 21. Technically there isn’t an age limit on drinking. (“USA”). If you can buy tobacco at 18, they should be able to buy alcohol at that age. If people can buy tobacco at 18, they should be able to bu...
Primarily, the drinking age should be lowered to teach responsibility and safety in young adults. The idea seems paradoxical; however, the high drinking age that is present in the U.S. today has only pushed underage drinking underground (Balko 458). In fact, America has the highest minimum drinking age in the world (Balko 459). Even though the American drinking age remains high, America still remains with an astonishingly large number of alcohol-related accidents and deaths. Is this statement a coincidence? Throughout the years alcohol has become more and more of an issue in young adults, but the correct actions are not taking place. If alcohol were to legally be put in the hands of Americans eighteen and above, these individuals would likely be forced to learn a sense of safety and responsibility. As stated by Caryn Sul...
If the drinking age was lowered to eighteen years old it will promote and cause society in general to learn the responsibilities and long term effects of drinking in moderation. the eighteen to twenty years old age groups are the most known and looked at to have issues with drinking in moderation, but if the legal drinking age was decreased it wouldn't be so much of a problem. “Lowering the drinking age would allow people to get used to drinking in moderation. this would allow the to learn to drink responsibly and lead to less alcohol related incidents in the future.” Once young adults begin having the freedom to drink it become less of a big deal. “it would make drinking alcohol less f a taboo” and more of a learning experience (Anthony Buratti pg. 1). In countries such as France, Portugal, and Spain alcohol consumption is started at a very young age yet there is little to no evidence that it is harmful to the eighteen to twenty age groups (Jessica Pauline pg. 2). Attempting to prevent the eighteen to twenty age groups will only provoke them to do it more and unsupervised therefore possibly harming themselves with dangerous consequences (Underage Drinking pg. 18). Exposing them to alcohol will allow them to gai...
...d help the stores, and the local stores might just have a better chance of getting more money, but others think it would be a great idea. Underage drinking may cost problems, and way of having problems with family, friends, and school, but they are wrong. Drinking at a young age, may just make everything worst. There are many drinking the more emotions, and nothing good ever came out of it. It just may make you someone you never wanted to be. young adults underage drinking has caused most accidents. Young adults have been dying more and more since they’re taken advantage of it. the’re been getting in car crashes, and parents are being more protected, but young adult just don’t listen, and they never learn. some people want the age to be higher, not just 21. some say leave it the way it is. Adults of the age of 21 are mature and they understand what they are doing.
were drinking to get drunk than their counterparts a decade earlier, and one recent study reported an increase, just since 1994, in the number of students who drink deliberately to get drunk? (Smith 1). I interviewed my friend Shelly Mitchell who recently turned twenty-one and asked her how she felt about finally being legal to drink. She quoted, ?It is not as exciting to drink anymore, I mean I still like to go out with my friends to bars, but the fun is all over, in high school and college it was so exciting trying to get alcohol by using a fake ID.? All of these factors could be changed by lowering the drinking age to eighteen. In a study done by the Harvard School of Public Health, binge drinking is defined as five drinks in a row for boys and four drinks for girls. And when they did a survey they found that 44% of the students attending Harvard binge drink (Jeffrey Kluger 1).
Also, 15.8% of underage males and 12.4% of underage females engage in binge drinking. Binge drinking has become a culture in the United States for people between the ages of 12-20 years old. This federal pressure has manipulated states into raising the drinking age so that they would not lose millions of dollars in highway funds. The reason that the drinking age was raised to 21 is because the government promised a 10 percent increase in highway funds to each state if they did so.
There are an estimated 3.3 million teen-age alcoholics in the United States. Adolescents who begin drinking before age 15 are four times more likely to develop alcoholism than those who begin drinking at age 21. Youth who drink alcohol are five times more likely to smoke cigarettes, four times more likely to smoke marijuana and three times more likely to use an illicit drug. Teens that use alcohol tend to become sexually active at earlier ages. Teens who use alcohol are more likely to be victims of violent crimes such as aggravated assault, robbery or rape.
Before the Drinking age was passed many states had a drinking age of 18 or 19. But the main ways the Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) got passed was from the Mothers Against Drunk Driving. Passing this act has saved quite of bit of underage accidents still today. Underage drinking has led to 2.7 million injures and 5000 deaths in the US. So with that being said the government needs to take in to consideration the risk of teens drinking and driving, in which they do with adults. In many articles the all said things around the government needs to make teen’s obey an zero tolerance to driving drunk and raise the consequence if they are caught doing so. Which seatbelt and DUI checkpoints have helped a lot to keep the numbers down of alcohol related incidents.
It really is no secret that if the minimum legal drinking age were lowered, a large number of teens would then drink for perhaps the first time. “The age group with the most drivers involved in fatal crashes with Blood Alcohol Content levels of .08 or higher during 2011 was the twenty-one to twenty-four-year-olds” (“National Highway Traffic Facts”). Young adults are just as irresponsible at eighteen as they are at twenty-one, maybe even more irresponsible. The teenagers will indulge themselves on what they feel is a luxury the first chance they get. The young adults abuse the alcohol, and then go driving because even at twenty-one through twenty-four they are still not as responsible. If the age is lowered to eighteen, many eighteen-year-olds will go out and drink alcohol for the first time. The age group may rise to number one in fatal crashes. The National Highway Traff...
Now let’s imagine a United States where the drinking age is lowered to age 18. What you would expect to see is that people would drink less because the temptation of drinking alcohol would be lowered. There would be a lot less alcohol related incidents because binge drinking rates decreased significantly due alcohol education and supervision. The mentality of “getting wasted” would also be gone because drinking would be treated as a normal social activity. Wow, if that really happens, drinking would be like how it is in Europe, where they have a lowered legal drinking age that actually works!
I believe the age for drinking alcohol shouldn’t be lowered to 18. For example, some kids are still 18 years old in high school. This shows that more kids might be drunk in class because they have the freedom to drink at such a young age. This also shows that the mind isn’t fully developed and is more likely to do ridiculous things. In addition, it could cause more accidents because there would be drivers that haven’t had very much experience driving (2 years). This shows that the death rate for teens could go up. This also shows that the population could go down because the more teen deaths now, the less amount of adults there could be in the future. Furthermore, it could cause the future parents (that are 18 now) to become addicted to alcohol.
Drunk driving accidents are the number one killer of adolescents (Teenagers and peer pressures. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from). Mixing drinking while driving can be deadly. Teenage drunk driving accidents not only affect the person drinking while driving, but it also can kill or harm others (Alcohol problems and solutions. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from) (Teen drinking and driving. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from) . Every single accident provoked by drinking and driving could have been prevented. If underage drinking is illegal, why do young people do it ? Teenagers usually are influenced by their elders (Alcohol problems and solutions. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from). In the United States, one out of ten 12 through 14 year olds have tried alcohol and continue to do so on a regular basis . There is a more than fifty percent of probability that young adults that have tried alcohol at a younger age may become alcoholics in the near future (Alcohol fatalities. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from). So, why do teenagers take so many risks with their health and behind the wheel? The answer is simple teen drivers tend to think they are invincible and more needs to be done to educate teens on the dangers of drinking and driving.