Drinking and driving appears to be one of the most troublesome issues for our community to resolve. There are associations such as Mothers against Drunk Driving, Driving under Influence, and many other factions that have done a significant impact on people of all ages in educating them about the existing condition. Sadly, in numerous situations their efforts have not been efficient enough. While a little over eighty percent of drivers have already known about the accepted alcohol level from an educational journal or commercial, nearly twenty percent are familiar with what the extent of the state is.
Substantially, this statistic indicates that the information is not quite absorbed by the consciousness of people. It is a common dispute for a media movement not to be influential; however, the issue of drinking and driving is too critical for becoming cliché. An illustration of driving while intoxicated problem emerges naturally when an individual is not aware of his inability and weak position to drive, and there is not a single person to doubt it and confront him. In general, when people are not affected by the alcohol, an individual is aware of the fact that drinking and driving are two incompatible concepts; nonetheless, the issue comes down to the matter that at the time when this critical resolution has to be made, an individual’s common sense is flawed.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “in 2012, 71% of drivers aged 15 to 20 were killed in motor vehicle crashes after drinking and driving were not wearing a seat belt. In 2013, 51% of teen deaths from motor vehicle crashes occurred between 3 p.m. and midnight and 54% occurred on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday” (Teen drivers, 2014, para. 4). Moreover, teenage and adult drunk driving up to this day remains the first originator of premature death.
The driving under the influence of alcohol has evolved into one of the most destructive contemporary issues in our community. Along with the extensive agendas towards alcohol alertness, which are accessible to all citizens, most people are aware of the effects of the drinking and driving; however, people are continuing to take the risk. The drunken driving could be provoked by a large number of determinants; though it always results in substantial, psychological, and nervous suffering for not only a person who was the reason for an accident but the blameless uninvolved bystanders as well (Finkelstein, Corso, & Miller, 2006).
The horrifying consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol could be divided into only two groups: death and existence after the incident. One of the implications of the adolescent and adult driving while intoxicated is enduring the life after the occurrence of breaking the law. The person who drinks and drives will not necessarily get into an accident with a fatal outcome; however, his life will assuredly be altered. To be more precise, an individual will be obliged by law to handle the consequences of driving drunk. According to the Office of the Illinois Secretary of State, “if someone under the age of 21 is caught driving with any alcohol in their system, he/she is subject to between 2-5 tears of a suspended license, a $2,500 fine, and possibly up to a year in jail” (White, 2008, para. 2).
Moreover, if a person has already reached the legal age, he or she is obliged to enter his or her arrest and detention on every job application and in every job interview being executed. The article in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention claims that “six teens die every day in the U.S. in alcohol-related car accidents” (Teen drivers, 2014, para. 3). If an individual selects to drink and drive, there is a tremendous probability of ending his or her own existence of putting the lives of bystanders in a grave danger. There are absolutely no beneficial and reasonable explanations and outcomes for drinking and driving, and the moments of sudden excitement and adventure do not justify this.
According to the research, which was conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, approximately thirty percent of all drivers that were taken into custody or even imprisoned because of driving while intoxicated appear to be reiterated perpetrators. It is crucial to keep in mind that driving under the influence of alcohol is against the law; what is more, it is able to destroy many lives. Drivers that choose to sit behind the wheel under the influence of alcohol should not be treated differently from the burglars, arsonists, and robbers, as they are intentionally committing a crime.
The plurality of population supposes that people who are accused and arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol on the first occasion should obtain an admonition or a nominal fine in a form of a ticket. Nonetheless, drivers that deliberately chose to drive under the influence of alcohol should be detained for their first offense. As the studies have shown, if the case of driving while intoxicated has occurred once, there is a high probability of it to take place again.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “in 2010, 10,228 people were killed in the United States due to alcohol-related crashes. People who drink and drive put everyone on the road in danger because drivers are not in the right state of mind when they are intoxicated. They cannot see, hear, talk, or think correctly. It is wrong for innocent lives to be taken due to the careless mistakes of drunk drivers” (Traffic safety facts, 2012, para. 6).
As it has already been stated, if a person is arrested while drunken driving, his or her driver license has to be abolished for half a year if this case is the first violation of the law. Nevertheless, it has been stated that nearly seventy percent of drivers still remain on the road without their driver’s license. Taking into consideration the amount of people that have been taken to jail, almost twenty-five percent of them tend to repeat the crime within a year after the incident.
Every driver has an opportunity to drive with responsibility, as the decision to drive under the influence of alcohol is able to have a dreadful influence on the lives of uninvolved entities. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, “in the past ten years, more U.S. citizens have died as a result of drunk driving than in the Afghan War, the Iraq War, and Hurricane Katrina combined” (Drunk driving statistics, 2014, para. 3). However, dissimilar from those interventions of military force and natural catastrophes, driving while intoxicated could be entirely avertable. Putting an end to the dangerous and destructive driving under the influence of alcohol spread is the responsibility of the recent generation.
References
Drunk driving statistics. (2014). Web.
Finkelstein, E., Corso, P., & Miller, T. (2006). Incidence and economic burden of injuries in the United States. New York, New York: Oxford University Press.
Teen drivers: Get the facts. (2014). Web.
Traffic safety facts. (2012). Web.
White, J. (2008) Use it and lose it. Web.