The Dangers of Drinking and Driving

The Dangers Of Drinking and Driving

Hundreds of Americans die every day from motor vehicle incidents. Nearly half of these are from drivers that are drinking under the influence of alcohol or drugs. This means that almost half of these incidents are completely preventable. Proper education on the importance of driving safely can help lower the amount of intoxicated driving accidents and car collisions in general. Learning of the consequences from drinking and driving will scare new and seasoned drivers into steering clear of it. The threat of serious jail time or high fines will help keep most intoxicated drivers off of the road.

Seeing its effects firsthand will also keep drivers from making the same devastating mistake. Last year, one of my high school’s football players was in a fatal accident involving driving under the influence. He was on his way home from a party swerving along the highway when a police officer tried to pull him over. Because he was afraid that he would be in deep trouble he decided that the best thing to do was run. Unfortunately, this decision led him to crash into a parked eighteen wheeler on the side of the road which killed him instantly. This devastated his family and friends and had a major impact on the community. Through this terrible tragedy, his family was able to educate our community on the dangers of drinking and driving and how it can affect your loved ones. With this weight on our community, his family hopes to prevent another family from going through the same hardships that they did.

In order to prevent deaths caused by driving while intoxicated, safety courses need to be readily available for everyone that wants to drive a vehicle. Although anyone who obtains a drivers license takes some form of driver’s ed, many are not informed in detail about the consequences of drinking or being under the influence while driving. To avoid situations where you or a loved one would drink and drive, it is smart to have a designated driver. A designated driver is a person that refrains from drinking so others can have a safe ride home. It is also important to know that no matter how old you are or how much alcohol you think you can take in before it affects you, that driving with any amount of alcohol in your system can put both yourself and others in harm’s way.

Preventable car incidents are one of the leading causes of death in America. Drunk driving causes almost half of these deaths. Driving while drunk and injuring or possibly killing yourself or another person will end up scaring friends, loved ones, and yourself for the rest of your life. If you end up surviving but you kill or injure someone else, you could be in jail for the rest of your life. The weight of that burden is too heavy for one to even think about driving under the influence. No driver should ever get in the driver’s seat if they have recently consumed alcohol.