Argumentative Essay: A Breathalyzer For Every Car

10-20-2013
Ms. Cox English Composition/Collaborative Essay
Betsy Bowman, Tiana Lavender, Alissa Cameron, Luke Zak

A Breathalyzer for Every Car

Driving is a mundane most U.S. citizens perform every day without fully being aware of it. As a result we often daydream and visualize ourselves in some other scenario. We forget that a vehicle is in fact a multi-ton battering ram on wheels. That it can injure, maim, kill or destroy entire families in a split second. It takes only one small lapse in attention while driving to create the millisecond necessary for wonton destruction via car. Most of these lapses can be avoided by simple mindfulness of our thoughts and actions. However, when alcohol is thrown into the mix even the concentration
of a fighter pilot or transcended monk cannot be focused. It is a well-known fact that alcohol impairs judgment, hand eye coordination, and concentration. Does this really need to be backed with a statistic? Try having a few drinks and playing some ping pong, darts or foosball, see what I mean? This is why driving and alcohol should never mix. Is there a way to prevent alcohol impaired drivers? This group answers that question with a resounding YES! If we put breathalyzers in every vehicle we can keep our roads significantly safer. This may sound like an absurd solution to a problem that may not directly affect every person. I think when considering this solution we need to remember times we have truly grieved in our lives. We all know that pain deep in our hearts that can only be caused by another human being. What if that loss was caused by reckless drunk drivers? What if that loss was completely preventable? Every day in America 27 people are killed in auto accidents involving alcohol (madd.org). Statistics can lie, maybe not every driver using alcohol in the previous statistic was overly intoxicated; without question some were. Why couldn’t they use better judgment? That’s the whole problem with alcohol, it impairs judgment. A statistic highlighting this is that the average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before their first arrest (madd.org). Does that make them bad people? No, in fact I imagine some of these people are highly successful and perform jobs like neurosurgeon, teacher, law enforcement, lawyer and so on and so forth. Alcohol obviously affects everyone’s judgment regardless of their career choice. The only way to prevent this is by breathalyzers that are required to start the engine of a car and continue its operation by driving. Judgment, it’s that intangible thing that makes or breaks us. We can be a millionaire overnight judging the appropriate risk. It is something we need intact at all times so we can make effective choices. Alcohol obviously impairs this function of the conscious mind. In fact, in 2011, 1.2 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol (madd.org). One third of drivers arrested for drunk driving were repeat offenders (madd.org). I know these two groups of people incorporate various walks of life and they cannot all be idiots. What is the common factor here? Poor judgment in getting behind the wheel secondary to consumption of alcohol. That is concrete and cannot be refuted. What could have stopped them? The facts are out there, we know it is illegal to drive while drinking alcohol. I am sure in a lot of cases people even told them to not drive, like “Why don’t you crash here tonight Jim, you have had a lot to drink.’’ Somehow all of these known facts and concerned input from friends were ignored. Not everyone in these statistics hurt or killed another motorist. However I would confidently wager one hundred percent of these people regret their decision to drive impaired that night. A vehicle that requires a breathalyzer to operate it would have prevented these poor decisions. Obviously drinking and driving has some serious consequences like death, maiming, injury and disablement. Often we think of the victims in the infraction of driving under the influence, but what of the perpetrators? Most people who get behind the wheel while being intoxicated hurt no one but themselves. The consequences of being charged with a DUI can be life changing and crippling in a much different way. Court costs, attorney fees, bail, car towing and impounding can cost as much as $2,500 (DUIfoundation.org). The fee to reinstate your driver’s license is $250 (DUIfoundation.org). The effects on the car insurance can cost anywhere from $5,000-$10,000 (DUIfoundation.org). A DUI conviction for a first offender can cost the offender approximately $9,500 altogether (DUIfoundation.org). I don’t know about you but I don’t have $10,000 lying around to pay for a lapse in judgment that could have easily been avoided. That is just money though. Being convicted with a DUI has other implications besides financial deficit. Some employers will be required by policy to terminate an employee convicted of a DUI, especially those in occupations requiring the employee to drive. Another way a person can lose their job secondary to the conviction of a DUI is they will not be able to find transportation to work. Not in every DUI case will a driver be granted a suspended license with work privileges. In some cases the drivers’ license will be completely revoked. In this case what is an employer’s choice? If a person cannot function in their position due to their inability to make it to work for six months or longer the only option is to terminate their service. Employers will not want to pay expensive benefit packages for someone who cannot regularly travel to their work place. This can cost someone any future income they could have possibly earned post DUI conviction, and it’s all because of one poor choice. A job loss can impact this person even further in that they could lose their house, business, or other financial obligations they will not be able to meet secondary to that job loss. Losing a job is a very stressful thing, it can ruin a person’s life and end marriages. Losing benefits is difficult because now a person is not covered for health insurance. If a person has children on their insurance policy through their employer, the children’s coverage will be dropped too. Without question this will affect a person’s emotional state and personal life. I can imagine the stress caused by this scenario. Loss of finances from DUI conviction is bad, but the stress and emotional impact is worse. Emotions experienced by those convicted of a DUI are shame, fear, anger and resentment (DUIattorney.org).
Shame because the person is branded as a criminal, and their freedoms will be withheld. Also shame is felt because a person charged with a DUI experiences public humiliation when appearing in court. And fear because of the associated financial impact. The loss of transportation and a means of providing for one’s self and family add to this fear. Anger can be directed at one’s self for the decision to drive under the influence. Resentment can be directed at the family because of the stress associated with providing for them after they have lost their job due to a DUI. All of these effects are reported by DUI Attorney.org. It goes without saying our emotional states are more important than our actual circumstances. A million dollar a year attorney will still commit suicide if he is depressed, even if it appears he has everything on the outside. It is well known that stress and depression are killers. This can all be experienced as a result of one poor decision in the case of DUI
conviction. What if you got behind the wheel under the influence and had the worst possible outcome of that decision; what if you killed someone? Forget about prison time, how much guilt and anger would a person have towards themselves? So you get out of jail after 5, 10, 15 years, that guilt will haunt a person for the rest of their life. Personally I would rather die than to kill someone’s child, lover, sibling, or family member of any kind. Drivers in these instances are not bad people, killers, criminals, or sociopath’s. In fact they are exactly like you and I, they are people. They come from various backgrounds, and each person is unique. The only thing they have in common is that they drove their car under the influence and changed their life, or someone else’s. I would wager every person convicted of a DUI regrets that decision. When we have so much variation in people, such as their physical makeup or worries, what makes them decide to drink and drive?
Alcohol, you cannot be convicted or a DUI unless you have consumed it. What can we infer? Alcohol affects everyone’s decision making process, aka judgment. The only way to guard against this effect is to place a breathalyzer in every vehicle in order for it to operate. If this was the case DUI conviction would be almost completely obsolete. Deaths associated with drinking and driving would also. It may seem absurd to take such a large scale measure. It may sound absurd, unless you have been charged with a DUI and suffered the consequences of it. It may sound absurd, unless you have lost or killed someone due to drunk driving. In those cases it makes perfect
sense.

Works Cited www.madd.org/statistics: Mothers Against Drunk Driving 2013. Web. www.duiattorney.com: DUI Laws and Penalties 2013. Web. www.duifoundation.org: Xavier, Anelli. NYS DWI Defense Firm 2013. Web.