In 2001, 17,448 people died due to alcohol-related crashes (NHTSA, 2003b). This was the highest number of fatalities in a decade. About 17,000 people die due to alcohol-related crashes each year in the Unites States (DeMichele, 1). As mentioned before, Sensation Seeking is why people get drunk then get behind the wheel of a car. Drunk driving is the leading cause of death for people from the age of six to thirty-three years old (Curran, 1).
Name: Brandon Adrien Teen Driving Issues Project Topic: Drunk Driving |Section Heading |Information | |Why is this a problem, |This is truly a great problem because according to the DMV, being intoxicated while driving is a common cause | |especially for teen |of very serious crashes, especially those that are fatal, involving teenage drivers. | |drivers? | | |Statistics from |More than 10,000 people die by drunk driving and hundreds of thousands have been injured. | |research regarding teen|Every year, about 708,000 people get injured in crashes related to alcohol. | |crash rates.
“Traffic deaths from drunken driving have fallen steadily, with those involving teenagers 16 to 19 declining by 39.1 percent from 1982 to 1990, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)”. (Clark, 1992). Even though drinking and driving is a crime thousands of teens continue to get behind the wheel and kill thousands of innocent people in alcohol related crashes every year. There are drunken accidents because teens don’t take drinking and driving seriously. Teens just want to feel the pleasure and they want to feel good but don’t think about the other people or even there selves that they can kill on the road.
A Social Problem In America alone people take about two hundred and thirty three trips in cars each year, of all these, one out of two thousand of these trips are being taken by drunk or drugged individuals. Statistics show that one of three traffic tragedies involve drunk drivers. Approximately nine thousand eight hundred seventy eight people died in car crashes in the year 2011. Due to these high numbers it was determined that this was a social problem in which the whole nation should pay close attention
Twenty-thousand young lives saved. Twenty-thousand families kept whole. Over the past 20 years, the number of 15 to 20 year olds killed in alcohol-related traffic crashes has been cut in half. The number of 15 to 20 year olddrinking drivers involved in fatal crashes also has been cut in half. This does not even take into account the huge number of drownings, burns, sexual assaults, suicides and homicides that have been averted by the "21" law.
1. Speed Enforcement Excessive speed is a factor in one out of every three fatalities in the United States and affects all other safety programs. A speeding drunk driver is more dangerous than one who is not. A speeding vehicle that runs off the road is far more likely to have a fatal result. A rollover that involves excessive speed is the most likely to result in death.
7/13/12 In the United States distracted driving is cause to more than 8,000 automobile accidents a day. The drivers that are most likely to be offenders to this are the youngest and the most inexperienced on the road. Out of the drivers involved in the accidents caused by distractions 16% of them are under the age of 20. So what are these driver distractions you may ask, they include texting, usage of a cell phone or smart phone, eating and drinking, talking to passengers, self grooming, reading, including maps, usage of a navigation system, watching a video, or adjusting the radio, cd player, or mp3 player. Types of distracted driving varies, there are visual
But the organization continues to struggle to prevent deaths, eliminate drunk driving, and deal with juvenile drinking. The organization provides the one of the biggest victim support services in the United States. Support is offered to a victim once every eight minutes. A twenty-seven percent decrease in deaths due to drunk driving was noted since 2006. A reduction in juvenile drinking was also noted.
Some of those reasons being the crime rates, the costs of what could happen, and injuries. Firearm injuries have killed more than 28,000 Americans each year since 1972 (Ruben). In 2007, thirty-one thousand two hundred twenty four Americans died due to homicides, suicides, and accidental shootings. Accidental shootings happen quite often. In 2007, around seventy thousand Americans were hospitalized due to accidental shootings.
Approximately 1.4 million accidents occur during phone conversations and two hundred thousand from texting.3 Texting drivers may be as impaired as a driver who is legally drunk. Laws should be changed or enacted to prevent senseless accidents, and unnecessary deaths. About five thousand people die annually texting while driving.3 Three-hundred thousand people are hospitalized for injuries obtained from accidents cause by phone use in the vehicle.4 Again no state in the U.S. completely bans all cellular phone use in the vehicle for all age groups.1 Without firm, enforced laws or probations regarding phone use in vehicles this issue will continue to grow worse. 1. 2012, Texting And Distracted Driving Infograaphic, retrieved on 2014, January 27, from: