No law can prevent her from having an accident and possibly killing herself or someone else. Underage drinking use is widespread in the U.S. The greatest risk for underage drinking is when that young person decides to get into a vehicle. Six thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight people aged from 15 to 20 were involved in fatal crashes in 2003. Twenty nine percent of these drivers in this age group
This is a battle that I do not want to be better at, nor do I want to win. It makes me sick to my stomach knowing I live in a state where we are the national leader of killing people by making ignorant choices. Truly chilling facts to read. The only thing worse than living in the state with the highest drinking problem, is living in the city with one. Houston is ranked the 6th highest city in the state of Texas for drunk driving deaths, and also ranked 47th in the whole United States of America.
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. Research shows that drinking while driving & texting while driving are equally harmful because they both impair the driver’s vision, the driver’s reaction time, & the driver’s concentration & vigilance, all skills needed to prevent millions of accidents, deaths, & injuries every year. There’s ample evidence that shows drunk driving fatalities have definitely decreased in the last 40 yrs. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration provides us with some interesting information, which I have converted into a line graph. My visual aid shows the fast decrease in drunk driving fatalities between 1970 & 2012.
Almost every 90 seconds, a person is injured due to a drunk driver. People under the age of the legal drinking age of 21 are twice as likely to be involved in a fatal crash as the people over the legal drinking age. As these teens are dying from these crashes, teens and mothers of teens are getting involved in trying to prevent these crashes. Teens Against Drunk Driving and Mothers Against Drunk Driving are just two of the many organizations that are making families more aware of this issue and are working to solve the problem of teens drinking and driving. Citations http://dui.findlaw.com/dui-laws-resources/underage-dui-zero-tolerance-laws.html?DCMP=ADC-DUI_DrunkDriving-Teenage&HBX_PK=drunk+driving+teens http://www.madd.org/ http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/DrinkingandDriving.html http://www.learn-about-alcoholism.com/statistics-teenage-drunk-driving.html
Raise the driving age Do you know that statistics show that car wrecks are the top killer of teenagers? The mininum driving age should be raised to 17 everywhere because too many teens are killed in car accidents, they are not responsble, and they abuse their driving privileges. Too many teens are killed in car accidents. Young teenagers are always pileing their friends in the car with them. The risk of a teen getting into a wreck increases by 44 percent with one teenage passenger and quadruples with 3 or more passengers.
They would rather him be alive right now instead of going to his funeral tomorrow. Texting and Driving is one of the leading causes of death.1.8 million people are in accidents each year because of it and half of them are killed. With that being said, there are plenty of other distractions that cause many “Close Calls” or wrecks! Besides texting and driving, eating and drinking is another “wreck-causer”. People eat and drink all the time while they drive.
When a teen gets to that age all they think about is driving, but when they turn that age parents just begin to worry. “Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, a research group funded by the auto insurance industry, acknowledged the idea is "a tough sell," but noted that car crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers” (Irvine). That is a big statistic to ignore. Pennsylvania had 242 deaths which involved a teenage driver in 2008, third among all 50 states behind that of Texas, 650 deaths, and Florida with 516 deaths (California DMV). Teenagers are reckless and we must do everything reasonable to prevent deaths.
Persuasion, Indoctrination, and Inoculation Driving under the influence is not only irresponsible behavior it’s against the law. It is also the leading cause of automobile accidents in the world today. MADD’s (Mothers against drunk driving) organization began with a mother who lost her child in a drunk driving crash. She turned grief into positive change; her work and the work of so many other mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers started a movement that has saved 300,000 lives…and counting. Even today, one in three people will be involved in an alcohol-related crash in their lifetime.
According to WHO research, about fifty percent of road accidents are associated with the consumption of alcoholic drinks. Unfortunately, alcohol-related problems not only affect drinkers, but they also affect all the people around the drinker, especially the drinker’s family. Family members that drink alcohol excessively spend little time at home and do not spend as much time with their family as they used to. Alcohol is also strongly associated with intentional injuries caused by aggressive behavior, leading to violent crime in the family. On the other hand, many economic problems in the family are caused as well because of the addiction to alcohol from a member.
According to the government, in 2009, 5,474 lives were taken and 448,000 people got injured from car accidents from being distracted while driving. Sadly, it is those few seconds of distraction that have cost several individuals their lives. Many countries have passed laws forbidding messaging while driving. Even with these laws and law enforcement striving to make sure everybody follows them, everybody has to do their part and actually follow them. Parents could set a good example for their children and show them that it is not safe to text and drive.