Saving Drivers

In 2019 more than 38,800 people in the United States alone died resulting from some sort of motorized vehicle accident. 10,142 of these crashes were a direct result of drinking while driving. That’s roughly 26.1% of deaths related to driving in the U.S. in 2019. In the U.S. the punishment for drinking and driving is 180 days and/or a $1,000 fine with a possible 6-month license revocation for your first offense. This punishment continues to rise until your 4^th offense which is 1 year jail time and/or $2,500-$10,000. You would think this and the possible risk of causing an accident would discourage people from drinking and driving.

The money from these fines goes to the Government’s Consolidation Fund. The Governments Consolidation Fund is the main bank account of the government. Drunk driving is responsible for funding the Consolidation Fund with over $132 billion each year. In 2019 the Federal Government spent $4.448 trillion after only bringing in $3.464 trillion in revenue. Thus, creating a $984 billion budget deficit. This creates a problem because now we must find the money to fill that gap while continuing to fund the Governments everyday expenses.

Since 1991 death rates have slowly been declining. Starting with 15,827 alcohol and driving related deaths in 1991 to 10,874 related deaths in 2017. The lowest year on record being 9,865 deaths in 2011. While the death rates from drinking and driving have decreased by 1/3 from 1991 the death rate is still way too high. Speeding is the number one cause of accidents and death on the road, closely followed by driving while under the influence. On average 28 people die every day due to drunk driving. That is equivalent to 1 death every 53 minutes, meaning that every hour someone loses a member of their family because of drunk driving.

Many people simply don’t understand the effect that drunk driving has on the U.S. If people truly understood how common death is because of driving while impaired, then people would be more apt to think twice before getting behind the wheel while drunk. One of the problems is that student drivers aren’t taught just how much drinking and driving can ruin their lives and the lives of others. While in drivers training students are taught about the dangers of drunk driving and the effects alcohol has on your body but no one really talks about how much drunk driving can ruin someone’s life. Students should have to go far more in depth about how fatal drunk driving can be.

Over the years people have struggled to find a solution to drunk driving. Many ideas have been brought up and many attempts have been made to fix this problem facing the U.S. Driving schools have begun to teach student about what alcohol does to their bodies, advertisements with statistics about drunk driving related deaths have been posted, and new laws have been made. All of these solutions have helped to decrease the death rate but the number of Americans dying because of driving under the influence is still way too high. We need a better, more effective solution.

When a driver is caught drinking and driving there are consequences. They have to pay a fine and there is possible jail time. With wages being raised recently, these fines aren’t so detrimental to the one paying them anymore. If we raise the fine value, they will create a bigger impact on the one paying them. If drinking while driving had a bigger impact on people, they would be less likely to do it because they couldn’t afford the fines. If less people are drinking and driving it would result in less deaths.

In addition to heftier fines keeping people off the roads, the additional money raised from those fines would go to the Government Consolation Fund. This money would help decrease some of the Federal Governments debt. It would help the government pay off its debt and it would help pay for the government’s day to day expenses. With raising fine rates, decreasing jail time would allow offenders more time to work to pay their fines. Keeping the offenders out of jail would also help to decrease funds that the Government Consolation Fund has to expend. Instead of helping to fund jails the government could spend the money elsewhere, keeping debt to a minimum.

All in all, drunk driving is not the only thing causing death on the road. However, we can only fix one thing at a time. Raising fines related to driving while under the influence will help to keep people off the road and help the Government Consolation Fund to reduces expenditures and pay off debt. There are many other solutions that could help reduce deaths related to drunk driving, however raising fines kills two birds with one stone.