Drunk Driving Essay

(Johnston) When we think about drunk driving, we think about teens. Teens are not the only ones who drink and drive but they are mostly the ones who make the wrong choices when it comes to drinking. One reason why teens drink and drive is because of peer pressure. Teens often get sucked in to drinking.

Easterbrook brings traffic accidents in contrast to the events of the tragedy of September eleventh, 2001 (A2). The number of deaths on 9/11: 3000, compared to the “42,642 traffic deaths in 2006” (Easterbrook A2). Easterbrook writes that in 2006 alone, 1.2 million people were killed on roads all around the world, compared to “100,000 dead as a result of combat” (A2). This huge comparison shows the huge deaths from

After an accident in which distracted driving was the harbinger, the people involved typically pay medical bills, legal fees if there is a court case, and increased insurance rates. Furthermore, one out of every five accidents that occur are due to distracted driving, and over 40 billion dollars are spent on car accidents each year. With those numbers in mind, the people in the United States spend on average over 8 billion dollars annually on accidents caused by distracted driving (No Author Listed, 2017). In addition, accidents not only cause monetary problems but emotional distress to any individual involved. For example, in a study recently conducted in Europe, 36% of people admitted into intensive care for an injury due to an accident also exhibited symptoms of anxiety disorders (Papadakaki, 2017).

"If we talk about gun control after a mass shooting, it is wrong. However, we can talk about having a lot of guns after a mass shooting"(Jon Stewart). Stewart presents a former Minnesota 's Governor Jesse Ventura view of point about guns controls. Ventura explores his illogical point that many people killed by drunk drivers than people ask the car company to stop making cars. In his response, Stewart comments that "we have to strict blood alcohol limit, raise the drinking age, enforcement penalties for the drunk driver that help bring drunk driving rates down; I don 't know by 2/3 in a few decades".

In 1984, Congress passed the National Minimum Drinking Age Act which raised the drinking age from eighteen to twenty-one. Since then, the total number of fatally injured drivers who were under the influence of alcohol has dropped by fifty-seven percent among people between the ages of sixteen and twenty. Despite this, many still believe that the national drinking age should be lowered to eighteen. However, not only does a drinking age of twenty-one save lives, but underage drinking is also linked to both sexual assault and drug use. In addition, scientists say that the human brain is not fully developed until the age of twenty-five and that underage drinkers are much more likely to develop an alcohol-related problem later in life.

In accordance with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, among drivers with BAC levels of 0.08 % or higher involved in fatal crashes in 2013, one out of every 3 were between 21 and 24 years of age (33%). The next two largest groups were ages 25 to 34 (29%) and 35 to 44 (24%). (CDC, 2015) Transition: However, if you decided to get in the car and be fearless, than you will suffer the consequences by getting stopped by a police officer and get into some legal issues. III.

Snyder uses the percentages of the average alcohol consumption of a certain age contrasting to the amount of time to support her claim. In the graphs provided, it can pinpointed that for “a 20-year-old man who saw few alcohol advertisements...was predicted to have 9 alcoholic drinks in the past month compared with 16 drink if he saw many advertisements”(Synder 5). Snyder uses fear and caution to attract the readers to her statement against the exposures that lead youths drinking. In the article, she states that underage kids “who consume approximately 20% of all alcoholic drinks...are involved in twice as many fatal car crashes while drinking”(Snyder 1). She list other negative effects of

Drunk driving seems to be a black spot of our civilization. An average of 17,000 individuals die each year in drunk driving related accidents, and drunk driving continues to be an enormously important public safety issue (MADD). With lowering this drinking age we can only expect more cases of drunk driving and more lives are put in danger. The National Highway Transportation Safety Administration estimates that about 900 lives are saved annually due to fewer alcohol-related traffic crashes involving underage drivers. Surely, it should be a priority for the society to minimize the death toll from drunk driving.

The Effects of Lowering the Drinking Age According to Carla T. Main in “Underage Drinking and the Drinking Age” from The Tennessee Electronic Library, the legal drinking age shouldn’t be reduced in result of all of the things that occur due to underage drinking. She talks about how institutions could help by having discussions with the college students about responsible drinking. When the drinking age was lowered between 1970 and 1976, the results were catastrophic. The highway deaths among teenagers and young adults skyrocketed.

What I found to be the most interesting from the reading that most of all car crashes are caused by distracted driving. Most distracted driving accidents are caused by teenagers or people who barley started driving. Distracted driving is caused when either the person who is operating the vehicle is paying attention to something that is going on inside the car or they are taking their attention to an object outside of the vehicle and not paying attention to the road. Over 5,000 distracted driving cases happen each year in the state of Utah. Nearly 3,000 of those cases result in injured persons and 28 result in death.

Are they active? What else is the government doing to stop this escalating problem? According to the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) “325 other distracted driving victims who have died since 2010; the number of people these irresponsible drivers have had a profound and devastating impact on is in the thousands”. OPP Deputy Commissioner Brad Blair states that. The youngest age group, those aged 16 to 19, had an impaired driving rate per 100,000 licensed drivers slightly lower than that for 25- to 34-year-olds and about 40% lower than the rate for 20- to 24-year-olds.

“In 2013, there were a total of 30,057 fatal crashes in the United States that involved 44,574 drivers. As a result of those fatal crashes, almost 32,719 people were killed.” Almost half of distracted driving crashes are rear end crashes which then results in hitting more cars and making those cars go out of control ending in either hitting innocent people or more cars. There are many things the Federal government and the states are doing to prevent this thing from happening. Such as “many states are banning texting while driving, or using graduated driver licensing systems for teen drivers, to help raise awareness about the dangers of distracted driving and to keep it from occurring.”

Facts How Big Is The Problem? FATALITIES: In 2012, 3,328 people were killed in crashes involving a distracted driver; 3,360 were killed in 2011. MAJOR/MINOR INJURIES: An additional, 421,000 people were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving a distracted driver in 2012, a 9% increase from the 387,000 people injured in 2011. In 2011, nearly one in five crashes (17%) in which someone was injured involved distracted driving.

A third-degree felony conviction for intoxication assault will result in at least two years and possibly up to ten years in a state prison. Intoxication manslaughter, killing someone while operating a motor vehicle while under the influence, may result in up to 20 years in prison. While fines and other penalties might be deterrents for driving while under the influence, the number one reason you should avoid it is the safety of yourself and those around you.

In truth, people only half accurate about alcohol causing accident where people are killed. Drunk driving is what’s killing people and older adults drink and drive. It’s as if the blame of drunk driving is only on young adults. Matt Nagin writes, “…According to M.A.D.D. (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), in 2010 the highest drunk driving rates were found amongst those ages 21 to 25 (23.4%)…” (n.pag). Older adults are drinking and driving and being irresponsible.