Problems With Drinking And Driving

Problem with Drinking and Driving

When someone has one too many drinks and then later drives before being sober, they do not just put themselves in danger, they put innocent lives at risk. Many people have seen a drunk driver on the road, they are weaving in between lanes and are not capable of making proper turns. That is what they should be able to and that is what puts not just the driver but many innocent lives at risk. And also, this is why drunk drivers cause so many deaths and injuries. These drivers are costing many countries way too much money. With so many of these impaired driver on the road it is time to put the legal age of drinking up and put the blood alcohol content (BAC) down.
Drinking and driving causes way too many traffic
injuries and deaths. In the United States, a high percentage of all the traffic accidents are caused by an intoxicated driver (pg. 362-365). According to Joey Kennedy, the writer of “Drunk driving Makes A Comeback”, forty-one percent of traffic incidents are caused by a drunk driver. And in 1987, if drunk driving did not happen, forty-seven percent of fatal crashes would have not happened (Evans). If a person that is drunk never drives then many, many lives would not be taken every single year. And with all the drunk driving happening all over the United States, there is a different crash about every thirty-three minutes (NCADD). So if drunk driving was not as a big of a problem as it is there would be about fifteen thousand, nine hundred twenty seven less crashes a year in just the United States. And that would lead to some much less injuries and deaths a year. But, sadly there has been an uplift to drinking under the influence of alcohol cases since 1997 according to a University in Chicago. If drunk driving was not as big of a problem as it is then so many more people would be much safer out on the road. When people drink and drive, they put people in the car and the people out on the road in danger. “Unlike the social drinker, who knows his limits and respects the law, the drinking driver is a villain who threatens the lives of the innocent through indulgence in his own pleasure (Gusfield).” According to a NCADD website, every single year, there are around 16,000 casualties in the United States. And that is in just one country, so that means there are an absurd amount of casualties caused by impaired drivers all over the world. And out of all those deaths, many people in those crashes could have been innocent and should not have had their lives taken from them. When people drive under the influence of alcohol they are putting way too many innocent lives at risk. If people are drinking and driving and cause an accident then they are adding to an annual fund which is now around fifty billion dollars a year now a days (Cengage Learning).
That is an unreasonable amount of money going into something that is completely illegal to do. And the crazy thing is, that number has not been going down, actually it has gone up by thirty-three million dollars since 1987 (Joey Kennedy). If this continues to go up by thirty-three million every thirty years then in 2048, the cost will be up to around fifty billion, thirty-three million a year. If drinking and driving was not as big of a problem as it is now then that money could be going into something that will be helpful, not repairing and caring for the injured. That shows that clearly the problem of drunk driving has only gained steam and needs to be taken care
of.
Despite the claims of harsh laws, there is around one million, four hundred thousand people that were arrested for drinking and driving, but over one hundred, fourteen million people admitted to driving while under the influence of alcohol. If there was actually harsh laws all over the globe, that number of people admitted to driving under the influence of alcohol would drop and that number of people arrested for drinking and driving would go up. And if the number of people getting arrested went up then surely a lot of those people will have learned their lessons and will not drink and drive again so that will lead to less people drinking and driving.
There are way too many big problems with drinking and driving, but a lot of them would go away with making the legal age of drinking to twenty-four.
Adults at the age range of twenty-one to twenty-three reaction differently than an older adult. The younger adults become intoxicated twice as fast as the older adult, also the young adults have a much harder time knowing when to stop drinking (Gale). Those that are older tend to be much more responsible than the younger adults. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that from 1975-2008, the number of fatal traffic accidents for eighteen to twenty-year olds decreased by 13 percent. That is since the legal minimum age drinking went up to the age of twenty-one. And if you put the legal age up to twenty-four, the drinking and driving accidents would surely continue to decrease because, when tenagers go to college they can now do much more as they do not have parents nagging on them to do the right
thing.
Another solution for solving the huge problems of drinking of driving is to lower the legal blood alcohol content to 0.03. Currently, most states in the United States have the legal BAC level at 0.10 (Joseph Pursch). Making a 0.7 change to the legal BAC level can help solve this huge problem, BAC has a big part on how well the person behind the wheel drives the car. A lot of stuff happens to the person that is drinking too much and as the BAC level rises. According to Joseph Pursch, at 0.10, that person can not drive a car what so ever. At 0.5, the ability of being able to stay in the correct lane and making proper turns is impaired. Also at 0.5, the ability of being able to multi task such as driving the car while fiddling through radio stations is impaired. Joseph Pursch is not the only person that is suggesting to lower the legal BAC level, the National Transportation Safety Board. This organization believes in lowering the legal BAC level down as they stated, “impairment at that level diminishes judgment and coordination.” If the world lowers the legal BAC level to 0.03 then the number of drinking and driving will drop an extreme number.
Drunk driving is a serious problem all over the globe and needs to be taken care of. It is only getting worse year by year. Drunk driving causes so much deaths and injuries, and many of those people should not have been hurt or killed as they were innocent. And wastes so much money when countries could be using that money towards something that will be helpful. Even with the claims of people saying that there are harsh laws, many people that are drinking and driving get away with it. So many lives could be saved and injuries could be prevented if we just put the legal drinking age up to twenty-four and lower the BAC level to 0.03. The time has come, the world should now take those measures under the system of law.