The number of alcohol related crashes are about the same number as homicides. Many people can be killed in car crashes and even more people can be killed when the driver is drinking or already drunk. The driver’s vehicle, the other vehicle, and/or other property can be damaged and it can be very fatal. 60% of all teen deaths in cars are alcohol related. Almost every 90 seconds, a person is injured due to a drunk driver.
| The Dangers of Drunk Driving Did you know that when you drive under the influence the likelihood of getting into an accident is 1.4 times more probable than if you did not? The Nation Highway Traffic Safety Administration states that 60 percent of all teen deaths in car accidents are alcohol related. Teens often abuse the power of alcohol resulting in a dangerous situation like DUI. The dangers of drinking and driving can ruin your life forever and can result in fatal crashes where you or others can be killed. Drunk driving is the act of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol.
There are also others who do not drink often that do not tolerate alcohol well. Those who do not tolerate alcohol well are obviously impaired. People who tolerate alcohol well may have an above average BAC, but not be impaired since they are more experienced. People who have such a great toleration for alcohol should not be lumped in with the others who do not and cause accidents. If they are punished, then it should not be in the same way as the people with no tolerance are punished since those people caused more of a risk to others than they did.
Did you know that 27 people in America die each day due to drunk driving fatalities and another 15 due to fatalities linked to distracted driving? According to Johnston and Wiggins, 2012 Every year there are thousands of fatal car crashes due to distracted drivers. Distracted driving is not only caused from texting & drinking, but from other distractions as well. These distractions include eating, music, children or other passengers in the car, & even putting on makeup or fixing their hair. There are many laws out there that ban texting and drinking while driving to keep people from harm’s way but there are so few people who actually obey the laws.
What is the best solution of preventing deaths from drunk driving in Houston? In America alone, every day roughly 30 people are killed in a car collision that included a drunk driver. Based on this, an average of 10,950 people die each year across America. This is a truly staggering number. These are innocent people who had such a life ahead of them and had it so abruptly taken from their hands.
Almost one-third of car wrecks are caused by teen drivers, a whole thirty percent! If we took out that one-third of car wrecks out of the total amount of car wrecks a year in the united states there would only be a total of four million car wrecks instead of an astounding six million! Also teenage drivers pose a threat to other drivers. Since there are six million car wrecks a year in the united states that means that there is a total of twelve million cars wrecked in the united states approximately every year. If teenage drivers were taken out of that equation a total of at least four million people would not have to go through the trouble of getting in a car wreck in the United States every year.
Statistics state that there is an estimated 10 million alcoholics in the U.S. and alcoholism is the 2nd leading cause of death behind cancer. In addition, the statistics also state that there are some who suggest that “alcoholism is actually ranked 1st because alcoholism is often misdiagnosed.” (Milam & Ketcham, 1983)The cause of death for the alcoholic can range from dying in a car accident; to deterioration of his or her organs from years of alcohol abuse. The alcoholic can look forward to a life in which they will have heart disease, cirrhosis of the liver, organ failure, loss of family, and loss f job. In addition, the ethnic group most likely to become an alcoholic is Native Americans while the least likely ethnic group is Orientals. Most people view alcoholism as a controllable disease and a “personal emotional weakness”.
Drinking has both the potential to affect and to be affected by the events within a relationship (Rodriguez, Øverup, & Neighbors, 2013). Studies have also shown that if the couples were open and honest with each other about their drinking and they were honest about their consumption amount, then there wasn’t a problem (Rodriguez et al., 2013). It was when they drank and tried to conceal it, that it caused problems. Therefore the individual doing the drinking was making it
Underage Drinking is Harmful Alcohol is a substance that is very dangerous and if used incorrectly or immaturely, the consequences can harm the users and the ones around them extremely. People have been debating the drinking age for years now, whether it should be lowered to 18 or kept at 21. In 1970, 29 states lowered their drinking age, and things were catastrophic; needless to say, they all raised the drinking age by 1976. Alcohol is a drug; in fact, it is the most widely used drug in the world. People abuse alcohol all the time, especially teens.
The risk of a teen getting into a wreck increases by 44 percent with one teenage passenger and quadruples with 3 or more passengers. When teens get into crashes they are not only putting themselves at risk of injury but also other innocent drivers. Many teenagers are not careful while driving and that is why the number of teens killed in car wrecks are so high. Young teenagers are most of the time not very responsble. They do not pay attention as much as an older driver would and that can cause many crashes.