How Drunk Driving Harms

Zion Tillman

Drunk driving has harmed many people, it’s actually one of the top killers in America. 10,000 people a year die due to drunk children, that’s one person every 50 minutes. The bad part is the numbers used to be higher than that, it’s good news numbers are decreasing. Drunk driving peaked in 1983, they tried to resolve that issue by raising the age requirement to purchase alcohol. Surprisingly, drunk driving became illegal in 1910, so the people in 1983 really didn’t care. The first man to get a DUI was George Smith, it was on September 10th, 1897, he was a 25-year-old taxi driver who crashed into a building.

According to a study in 2018, 24% of drivers that crashed and died were 15 through 20-years-old. This makes sense, but this needs to stop, there are two issues with this. Kids at the age of 15 shouldn’t be drinking, they shouldn’t even be driving without a legal adult. The minimal drinking age of 21 has saved a lot of lives, but too many people are still dying. Exactly 31,959 lives have been saved from 1975 to 2017, it could be so much higher. In 2018, the highest percentage of drunk drivers aged 21 to 24, they were 27% of drunk drivers, then 26% were aged 25 to 34. Male drunk drivers out ratio female drunk drivers 4:1, it’s not really surprising because men are more reckless.

To prevent accidents, plan a safe trip home before a party. You can ask a friend who doesn’t drink to be the designated driver or even have someone come pick you up. You can be responsible and take the keys from your friend that’s been drinking, you could potentially save their life by taking away the keys to a dangerous vehicle. If you host a party, make sure none of your guests that drank drive home, cabs, ubers, lyfts, they can all help. You’ll be an amazing friend if you call all of your guests rides. It would be very expensive as well. It’ll be smarter to let them chill at your place and sober up.

Driver education is important because it helps us younger people understand vehicle control and how to work with cars in different situations. People start driving at 16, people can’t just throw all that responsibly on a little kid like that. Driving at such a young age can be very intimidating, younger people don’t think right or freak out if they’re nervous. 16 year olds have a higher crash rate than other drivers, it’s not very surprising because they’re the least experienced on the road. Driver education can prevent death and decrease the rate of teens dying in car crashes. Drivers education can help young drivers grow accustomed to driving and the rules of the road.

One big thing we can change is texting and driving. We hear about it all the time, it’s actually getting worse. One way to prevent texting and driving is keep your phone out of reach, like you can put your phone in the back seat. Another way we can prevent driving related deaths is driver education. It’ll inform people about road rules and will make the road a safer place.

I don’t text and drive because I’m scared of the possibility of how I’ll affect someone’s life and hurt their family. I also fear how my death will affect my family and friends, just because of my irresponsible driving, my family would have to go through so much pain. To prevent checking my phone, I keep it on the seat next to me and control my music with a phone that needs wifi to work. Because the phone has no connection, I can’t get lured with messages or see news that tempts me. I don’t want a scary, terrifying death, so I drive responsibly, I even use my turning signals.

There are many examples…too many examples, of people getting injured, or dying, from drunk or distracted driving. Luckily, there are also many ways to prevent this, without much impact on your daily life. Let’s use our past mistakes and educational materials to improve ourselves on the road!