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The causes of drunk driving
Essay on safe driving for teenagers
The causes of drunk driving
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What is the number one cause of teenage deaths in the United States? In this country a teenager dies due to alcohol related car accidents every twenty-two seconds. 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. Through out the years teenagers have been driving without a license. In this century teenagers are decreasing to get their license (Teens getting their driver license. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from ). Teenagers tend to think that just because they know how to pump gas press the brakes and rea... ... middle of paper ... ...3, from http://www.teencentral.net/Alcohol/d&d.php Surviving. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from http://www2.courtinfo.ca.gov/stopteendui/teens/facts/ Tee drinking and driving. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns/teendrinkinganddriving/ Teenagers and peer pressures. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from http://www.drinkwise.org.au/parents/parents-of-15-17/teenage-peer-pressure/ Teen car accidents. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from http://www.car-accidents.com/teen-car-accidents.html Teen problems with alcohol. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from http://www.projectknow.com/research/teen-problems-with-alcoholism/ Teens getting their driver license. (n.d.). Retrieved November 1, 2013, from http://www.freep.com/article/20120721/BUSINESS01/207210417/Fewer-American-teens-getting-their-driver-s-licenses-U-M-study-finds
The leading cause of death for U.S. teenagers is motor vehicle accidents. More than 5,000 of our teens die each year in crashes. For the purpose of this topic, “teenagers” encompasses ages ranging from 15- to 20-year-olds. I am proposing legislation to address this issue.
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...
Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens, and about one-third of those are alcohol related. Don’t be that person that lets a drunken driver on the streets; be the difference.
An average of one teen dies each hour in a car crash in the United States, and nearly 50 percent of those crashes involve alcohol, according to the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration (NHSTA). Alcohol is the drug most widely abused by teens. Alcohol abuse occurs among all geographic, ethnic and racial groups. Teens easily succumb to peer pressure when deciding whether or not to use alcohol. Unfortunately, they lack the coping and judgment skills necessary to handle alcohol wisely.
Drunk driving is a problem that we hear about every day and it is something that effects everyone, but it only becomes real when it affects us directly. What we don’t know is when a problem like drunk driving will become “real” for us. Drunk driving is an issue that has taken a toll on our country and should be stopped. Drunk driving has been an increasing problem for many years. It effects not only the driver but all of society. The good thing is there are many ways the percentage of drunk drivers can be reduced. Although many people believe drunk driving doesn't affect them because they don't drink and drive, it is something that affects the whole community.
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...
About five thousand teens die from underage drinking each year from suicide, drunk driving, etc. There are many different effects and causes of teens that start drinking. There is not enough attention to teens that drink and still there is a huge amount of teens still dying each year. Teenage Alcoholism is a huge problem, not in just the United States but all around the world. Stricter laws need to be enforced to lower the rates of teens dying and create a more safe and happy place for teens and adults.
The article “Teens Drinking and Driving” (2012) recognizes that drinking and driving among adolescents in high school had declined by 54% since 1991. Although there has been a decline, high school teens continue to drink and drive 2.4 million times a month. Almost one million high school adolescents reported drinking and driving in 2011. The article “Teens Drinking and Driving” also states, “85% of teens in high school report drinking and driving in the past month also say they binge drank” (2012). Binge drinking is consuming five or more alcoholic beverages within a certain time frame, which can lead to drunk driving and other risky behavior. “Teens Drinking and Driving” (2012) also reports that one in five adolescents that drive under the influence are involved in deadly crashes with alcohol in their body. No matter what the circumstances are adolescents continue to drink and drive. There are solutions that can help decrease the ever occurring dangers of drunk
Teenage drinking has become a big problem around the world the studies have shown between seventy to eighty percent of every teen has had an alcoholic beverage. (ClayPool 2) That is about half of the students in a public school. 1.9 million teens from the day they turned twelve to the age of twenty are considered heavy drinkers. (Well-connected 21) But only twelve out of fifteen actually have a problem drinking alcoholic beverages. (Goodwin 63) Many teens die in traffic accidents each day from the age sixteen to nineteen. There has been around 2,700 teens in the United States killed and almost 321,000 were treated for injuries suffered by motor-vehicle crashes, but then were released to go home. The cost to repair the damages of an alcohol-related accident is estimated to be around one-thousand, five- hundred all the way up to one-hundred, forty-eight billion dollars. ("Teenage" 64) But alcohol-related crashes also cost American taxpayers one-hundred billion dollars not just the driver. ("Drinking") Days of the week with the highest deat...
“Automobiles are not ferocious.... it is man who is to be feared,” as Robbins B. Stoeckel remarked, enumerates a simple, yet fundamental concept- a vehicle in itself is a relatively safe, that is, until you put a person behind the controls. Further adding to the danger is the ever prevalent risk of a fellow driver being impaired by the usage of alcohol; perhaps the only thing that may make such a situation even more difficult and dangerous is one who is under the legal alcohol drinking age. Fewer situations are more life threatening than when an underage driver has been illegally consuming alcohol, yet persists in the belief that he or she retains the ability to drive safely. Thoughts along this line are foolish at best and deadly at worst. Unfortunately the worst case scenario is all to often a common occurance among intoxicated teenage drivers. Obataining a complete grasp of the effects of underage drinking and driving require not only simple statistical analysis of the results, but firsthand accounts of the results. Before even this may be examined, the effects of alcohol simply on the underage group must be expounded upon and understood.
The biggest problem with drunk driving by young adults is the high rate of traffic accidents. Although young drivers ages 16 through 25 makeup only 15% of U.S. licensed drivers, they constitute 30 percent of all alcohol-related driving fatalities. This is double the amount of licensed drivers in that age group. Inexperience with both drinking and driving may contribute to this disproportionate rate. Nationwide in 1996, people ages 15 to 24 died in fatal motor vehicle crashes and 45 percent of those deaths were a result of alcohol (NHTSA 4). So it comes to no surprise that traffic crashes are the leading cause of death in the United States for people younger than 25 (NCHS 98).
In addition to teenagers gaining independence and freedom with a license, parents also gain more freedom as well. Teenagers who cannot drive rely heavily on parents, siblings, and other people to chauffeur them around. Not only does this cost more for the driver, ...
As a result of underage drinking, 5,000 adolescents under the age of 21 die annually due to intoxication (taking motor vehicle crashes, homicides, suicides, and other injuries while intoxicated into consideration) (paragraph 2). Later in life, underage drinkers are more likely to develop alcoholism, poor performance in school, and risky sexual behavior (paragraph 43). Although this research is not opposed to my argument, there is an importance to acknowledging it as proof of dangerous, underage drinking occurring significantly regardless of whether it is illegal. More importantly, this research stems from adolescents drinking without the supervision of adults and in uncontrolled quantities. Since adolescents must wait a long period of time to drink legally, I believe they fear they must take advantage of drinking opportunities by excess drinking and risk of safety due to their restriction to alcohol. Based on this mindset, I believe exposure to alcohol at a younger age in controlled environments would not only decrease underage drinking in large quantities, but injury and death related to intoxication, as
Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens, and about a quarter of those crashes involved an underage drinking driver ("Mokeyane, Nola K."). Drunk driving can lead to terrible accidents like killing someone, losing your own life, imprisonment, criminal records, legal costs, increased insurance costs and living with guilt that you injured or caused an accident and then that can eventually lead to depression ("Drinking and Driving."). When drinking you lose judgement and many times you do things that you normally would not do sober. Drunk drivers are very dangerous on the road and they can easily hurt an innocent person or even hurt themselves ("Teenage Drinking."). Drunk driving can also cost a lot it can cost you attorney fees, bail
“Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of unintentional deaths for teens (16-17),” reported The New York State Department of Health. The most exciting thing about being sixteen in the United States is driving. Teenagers can not wait to be sixteen to drive, however, they do not understand the dangers that come with driving at such a young age. Sixteen is the age between child life and adulthood. It is a time when they are not stable and undergoing change, which makes them unsuitable to drive. Many teenagers would say that they need to get to places. In response to that claim, there are public transportation systems and bikes as available alternatives for young drivers. The financial stability and matureness of eighteen year olds proves