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The effect of drinking and driving
The effect of drinking and driving
The effect of drinking and driving
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Drunk driving is known around the world to be illegal. It wasn’t until 1910 in New York that the state adopted the first drunk driving law. Since then, most of the population has considered drunk driving a hazard for their safety. Driving with a BAC (blood alcohol count) of over 0.08 may only be a couple drinks but the result of lack of concentration is alarming. The drivers could feel fine but they still can have trouble with steering, changing lanes, and even braking. On your first offense of a DUI (driving under the influence) you can get your license suspended for less than a year, but drivers that are caught should get that suspension for all 365 days.
All 50 states in America have a law stating that a driver that is driving with a BAC of 0.08 and over is committing a crime. It’s the way the drivers are punished that is different from state to state. The common suspension of a license is 90 days.Though, some states such as New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and, Tennessee have no law suspending a license on the first offense. Georgia is the only state that does suspended licences on first offense if the driver refuses to do any of the other punishments.
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In 2011, 9,878 people are killed from a drunk driving crash. Also, in 2011 it was recorded that on average every 53 seconds someone is in an accident where one of the drivers was drinking. When a license is suspended then the driver can have no access to driving. With them off the road it keeps one less person from being injured in a crash. In Georgia, where on first offense their license is suspended for a year, had 297 fatalities caused by a drunk driving accident just last year. In Pennsylvania, where on first offense their license is not suspended. had 386 fatalities caused by a drunk driving
If you limit the BAC of 0.05% its drops two drinks or less for small people and three for larger people. If a person’s Body Alcohol Content is 0.05%, it’s about 38% more likely for that person to crash than being sober and the driver’s level is 0.08% is about 169% more likely. On average every hour one person is killed and twenty people are injured. “Crushes have decreased by 50% between 1983 which was 21,113 to 2011 which was 9,878” (Brown).
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,...
In other states, laws for drunk driving do help their roads to be safer. Montana should follow suit with the laws in
Driving under the influence is measured by a person’s blood alcohol level (BAC). BAC is determined by the concentration of alcohol in the bloodstream. Individual counties and states have their own legal level on blood alcohol percentages that they measure a person’s BAC to determine if they are intoxicated while behind the wheel. “Everywhere in the United States it is illegal to drive with a BAC of 0.08% or higher” (DUI Foundation).
Sadly, 50 to 70 percent of convicted drunk drivers continue to drive on a suspended license. On average, two in three people will be involved in a drunk driving crash in their lifetime ("11 Facts"). Drunk driving is an issue that can be overcome by putting a Breath Alcohol Ignition Interlock
Drunk Driving is defined as: Operating a motor vehicle while one 's blood alcohol content is above the legal limit set by statute, which supposedly is the level at which a person cannot drive safely. State statutes define the legal limit to be between .08 and .10 depending on what state you’re in. Every 51 minutes in America, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash(MADD). That equates to 27 people every day. Which comes to a total of at least 9,855 deaths in a year. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 32% of fatal car crashes involve an intoxicated driver or pedestrian (MADD). As of right now, in society the total number of drunk driving accidents is slowly but surely increasing and if nothing is done about it, it’ll result in a tragic amount of deaths and injuries. Drunk drivers are extremely dangerous not just to oneself, but to society as well. That is why one serious solution to this societal epidemic is to create a portion of the driving test where drivers will be required to be at least ten beers deep and while drunk they must drive through a set of
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...
Approximately one million people are injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes every year, and young people, ages 16 to 24 are involved in 28% of those alcohol-related driving accidents. Drunk driving not only puts yourself in danger, but those around you. Drunk driving in Wisconsin doesn’t have strict laws. The fine for drunk driving in Wisconsin on the first offense ranges from 150-300 dollars. You could’ve killed someone. A life doesn’t cost 300 dollars. Life is priceless. Drunk driving in America is a large reason for injuries or deaths of young adults and teens.
In an attempt to combat the issue of DUIs, a national minimum BAC level of 0.02 has also been set for drivers under age twenty one and has reportedly saved hundreds of lives for drivers between the ages of eighteen to twenty years. Educational programs in schools and communities focused on the advantages of using “designated drivers” as well as public education and lobbying groups; such as Mothers against Drunk Driving (MADD) and Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) have also yielded positive effects in the reduction of DUIs (Levinthal, 2011).
DUIs have blindly taken lives of citizens, and the punishment for this crime does not meet its destruction. In Mississippi, the first offense of a DUI carries only a ninety-day license suspension. Drunk drivers kill people every year. If DUI punishment became stricter, and careless drunk drivers paid the full consequence of their wrongdoing, the number of people killed by drunk drivers would decrease. Some argue that if the government strengthened DUI laws, it would have an economically negative effect on a city’s social drinking aspect; however, DUI laws would have a direct effect on repeated offenders and drinkers who disregard the law.
The importance of DUI laws shows itself greatly when it comes to saving lives. Pulling over a driver under the influence of drugs or alcohol could potentially save a life. A lot of DUI laws have been passed over the years and the penalties and consequences for someone getting a DUI have become more severe and have far worse consequences and can impact their careers/ jobs and future plans. New Mexico’s first time DUI penalties start as small as Jail, up to 90 Days, License Suspension, up to 1 Year, Ignition Interlock for 1 Year, DWI School, Alcohol Evaluation and Comm...
...ught, he or she will not be severely punished. The unsupported threat of increased penalties is not sufficient to achieve long-term changes in habitual drinking and driving behavior. Experts believe that the prospect of jail time or revoking of driver’s license may be effective in getting the attention of the habitual drunk driver who has never been caught. “But unless treatment is available to capitalize on this attention, powerful habits will re-emerge as the memory of punishment fades” (Fields).
They are never going to be able to reclaim their normal life, while the offenders after a few days in prison are released and put on probation. Situations such as this begs to ask a question of fairness and justice. The penalties for a DUI in Texas are insufficient and need to be changed. A person with a first offense of a DUI gets a minimum of 3 to 180 days’ jail time and up to $2,000 in fines and penalties and requires no use of an interlock ignition device. South Dakota’s DUI penalties include no minimum jail time or fine for a first or second offense, no administrative license suspension, and no ignition interlock requirement. It had the number one fatality rate from 1995-2013 and the number nine rate for 2013 alone. Nevertheless, there are still far too many people dying each year because intoxicated people get behind the wheel. Many people believe that changing the law for a DUI would not help, that drinking is uncontrolled and one of the toughest addictions to break, bars will remain open, and stores will continue to sell beer. If it was you or your loved one that died as a result of someone else 's driving drunk, would you still feel the same way? Would you still think that the laws shouldn’t change? Driving is a privilege and a responsibility. Drivers should always take this responsibility to heart before getting behind the wheel of an automobile. They should think about the pedestrians walking along the
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
Drunk driving can be very deadly. Yet many people drive while under the influence everyday. Drivers who are drunk are blamed for the loss of as many as twentyfive thousand lives in highway crashes each year and hundreds of thousands of severe injurys.