This essay represents an effective piece of argumentation. The author states her purpose by saying teens are not mature enough to handle a lower age to legally drink alcohol. Tag? Joyce Alcantara tries to convince the readers that the age to legally drink should not be altered and assumes that the audience agrees that “Our youths today are the leaders of tomorrow” (468). With that, we must protect our years ahead. Alcantara addresses her audience as if they seem uninformed, she addresses various points on why teens younger than twenty-one should not consume alcohol. Tag? The opposing audience of this argument often say if eighteen-year-olds can serve in the Army, vote, drive, and marry, why can they not legally consume
Many people would agree with the claim that the passing of the National Minimum Drinking Age act was the responsible and moral decision to make. Since then, it has lowered drunk driving fatalities by 51% and the total of all traffic accidents by 20%. It has even managed to help make intoxication calls for hospitals less common. However, despite these great improvements for the fight towards traffic accidents and irresponsible drinking habits, it has ironically caused more harm than good towards our society in terms of the benefit of our economy, our constitutional rights as Americans, and the safety of young adults. It would be understandable to view the lowering of the current legal drinking age as irresponsible but it would also be unwise to try to fix one problem only to create more. The legal minimum age for the consumption of alcohol in the U.S. is a huge mistake and it needs to be fixed by lowering it for the progression of our legal
Drunk driving can be easily prevented, it just takes a few steps. There are many non-profit organizations that are against drinking while driving. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) is one of them. Candy Lightner founded this organization after her daughter was killed in an accident caused by a drunk driver. The year Lightner founded MADD, more people died from drunk drivers than the number of people who died in a war. Today, those fatalities have been cut in half. The mission of Mothers
Drunk driving is a serious issue. Drunk driving is also known as D.U.I. (driving under influence). When a person’s BAC (blood alcohol content) is over 0.08, this it is considered not safe to drive. Drivers who are drunk aren’t as focused on the road and are prone to causing more accidents. Laws should be harsher for drunk driving to decrease the number of innocent people getting killed annually. According to the US Department of Transportation, the vast majority of drivers with a BAC (blood alcohol content) of over 0.08 or above are unimpaired. Their reaction times are more slow, and their ability to control a vehicle is comprised. The risk of accidents rises gradually with BACs from 0.01 to 0.08 percent, but increases dramatically after a person’s BAC reaches or exceeds 0.08 percent. According to the article Drunk Driving on Gale Groups, drunk drivers in 2009 only, caused 10,839 deaths. This number represents almost one-third of all traffic related deaths that year. !0,839 people is a HUGE number of deaths and is a result of letting drunk people onto the roads. By letting these people drive, we
When the Minimum Legal Drinking Age changed to 21 years old in 1976, there was a decrease in fatal car accidents which saved approximately 21,887 lives (Alcohol Policy MD). Many lives were saved because there were less young drinkers and less people driving under the influence of alcohol. If it were possible to save lives, why wouldn’t you want to do that? An argument is made that if teenagers are allowed the responsibility to drive when they are 16 years old why can’t they drink at an earlier age? This is simply because Alcohol can put people in danger. 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. A higher Minimum Legal Drinking Age (MLDA) is effective in preventing alcohol-related deaths and injuries among teenagers and youth. When the MLDA has been lowered, injury and death rates increase, and when the MLDA is increased, death and injury rates decline (Wagenaar, 1993). In addition, a common argument among opponents of a higher MLDA is that because many minors still drink and purchase alcohol, the policy isn't working on minors. The evidence shows, however, that although many youth still consume alcohol, they still drink less and experience fewer alcohol-related injuries and deaths (Wagenaar, 1993). There is also an argument comparing the European alcohol and drunk diving among the youth compared to the United
Drunk driving is a serious problem that continues to take thousands of deaths each year. Too many innocent lives been lost to drunk driving. A death from drunk driving does not only affect the victim but it affects everyone around them such as family and friends. One night, one drink, one mistake is all it takes for drunk driving to take its toll. There are many solutions to prevent drunk driving, but they will only work if we put them into play.
Four lives. One crash. One mistake can change everything. In 2013 in Cutchogue, New York around 5 p.m. eight friends were traveling in a limo after a weekend trip. In the limo on the way home, a red pickup collided with the limo and splitting it almost in half instantly killing three of the women, and another dying later at the hospital. Every single year millions of lives are lost to drinking and driving, and as a nation this is a very well respected law with high consequences. In 2014 over 1.1 million people were arrested or convicted of driving under the influence (DUI). In recent studies done by Transport Research Laboratory, the reaction time of a drunk driver is decreased by 12%, and over the past 15 years, accidents have decreased dramatically since 2000 when congress adopted a .08 Blood
However, “90% of drunk driving deaths in the United States were found in the over 21 age group” (Gruenewald). For this reason, drunk driving is not directly correlated with the drinking age. In addition, the percent of drunk driving deaths in the United States has reduced at a slower rate than European countries where they have their legal drinking age at eighteen. This suggest that if lowering the drinking age was a success in Europe, it may also be effective here in the United States to diminish the amount of drunk driving deaths. This is because people that become injured due to alcohol or alcohol poisoning are afraid to report their injuries to the hospital or authorities out of fear of illegal consequences for underage drinking. Therefore, lowering the legal drinking age encourages teenagers to assist others from the dangers of drinking and
Central Idea: Drinking and driving is extremely dangerous: you are at risk of hurting yourself, become a threat to others around you, you can get into some legal issues if you are stopped by a police officer.
Drinking while driving not only affects the driver himself, his family and also passengers that may be riding with him and this person's family as well. And not to mention the other people and pedestrians that are on the road. When a person becomes a fatality they are not just a victim, their families suffer
The policy on drunk driving has been a controversial topic for decades, whether it is to deter or punish drunk drivers. Current public policy on drinking and driving includes the blood alcohol content (BAC) standard. The BAC measures the alcohol concentration present in a person’s bloodstream. The level of alcohol concentration often serves as an indicator of how intoxicated an individual is. It is the most accurate form of alcohol impairment measurement currently exists. There are those who are in favor of the policy, as well as those who are against the policy. Many people have difficulties making such judgment call on the policy of drunk driving, but here is an indisputable fact: “Every 53 minutes on average, someone is killed in a drunk
One of the greatest death causes while driving for many years was because of individuals driving under the influence of alcohol. However, alcohol is no longer the only reason why so many deaths are being caused out in the streets while driving. Society is so consumed by this one thing that even while driving it cannot wait. Those who are driving do not understand the danger they put themselves and others in when they give their attention away from the road and everything around them. This small device in the hands of people while driving has caused many deaths in our world. People will always have arguments for either one side, saying that texting is more dangerous while driving or drinking. After reading the research that was made, those who are entrusted while driving might have a different insight of the impact they can cause around them if not being responsible.
Drunk driving causes thousands of deaths per year because each day, someone does not think as they step on the gas pedal. Driving while intoxicated causes problems that not only affect the victim lives, but the future of the drunk driver’s life as well. Drunk driving was the main cause in the death of one of the world 's most famous and beloved people in 1997. A man named Henry Paul was driving more than 80 mph while impaired by alcohol, lost control of his car in a tunnel that caused the death of himself, Princess Diana and her boyfriend Fayed (Dickey, Christopher, and Mark Hosenball 54). Drivers should never be able to be on the road while intoxicated. After parties, a trusted friend needs to make sure that the drinker gets home safe, without driving drunk. If all traffic enforcement officers used passive sensors, over 700,000 drunk drivers could
1. In your own words explain the demerit point system and give 10 infractions and how many demerit points it will cost the driver for each?
An even more shocking fact has been put forward by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) which stated that on an average, two in three people will be involved in a drunk driving crash in their lifetime. This clearly blurts out the fact that alcohol and driving simply doesn 't go together.