8326475

Alcohol Is Not The Answer

Did you know that every 40 minutes, somebody in the U.S is killed by a drunk driver? In

2007, over 1.4 million drivers were arrested for being behind the wheel of an automobile while

impaired. We go out to have fun but we do not think about the consequences after the fun is over.

Is it not better to be driven home by a friend who is not under the influence of alcohol than to

drive yourself home while under the influence of alcohol? Many people drink and drive all the

time and do not get caught so they think it is okay to do it again. Little do they know that they

may not hurt themselves but they might hurt someone else. Does an innocent person have to get

hurt or killed in order for people to not drink and drive?

The DUI law was first adopted by New York in 1910. Although the law was set to only be

used on people over the limit of intoxication, people could still put the lives of others in danger.

The level of intoxication that a person has to be over to be arrested is 0.08 percent or higher. The

(Blood Alcohol Concentration) BAC 0.08 percent was not the first legal limit. The first legal

limit of BAC was 0.15 in 1938 but was then reduced to 0.08 because of the amount of accidents

being caused under the BAC limit of 0.15.

There is a difference between a reckless driver and a drunk driver. Someone can be a very

good driver with a license and could still make the wrong decision to drive while impaired.

Meanwhile a reckless driver will always drive without any care. Everyone should have the

thought to at least think about others and not just themselves. There are people who have families

and plenty of other loved ones in their lives and for someone to put someone elses life in danger

just because they were in a rush is selfish.

8326475
2

Many states adopted Zero Tolerance Laws which brought to us many other laws like the

legal drinking age being 21 with a BAC of 0.01 or 0.02. If a person was to break this law they

could either get arrested or get their license confiscated. A person getting their license

confiscated is also known as License Suspension. The License Suspension law was passed

around the entire nation as a way to make sure people are more secure than before. Laws

continue to build up because of the fact that every year we do not really make a big difference in

decreasing the number of deaths in the U.S. In 2013, the number of fatalities decreased by only

2.5 percent, there were 10,336 fatalities and it decreased down to 10,076 deaths. A small

difference is better than no difference but a bigger decreasion would have been more appreciated.

In 2014, the amount of fatalities decreased a little more. There was a total of about 9,967 deaths.

Statistics say that it is not the type of drink that causes a person to get drunk but it is

actually the amount of alcohol that is consumed over time. An alcoholic beverage can have a big

percentage of alcohol and still with one drink a person may not get drunk. Many drunk drivers

deny that they are drunk when pulled over and that is when many tests are done to prove if they

are or are not. Two out of three people will be involved in a car accident having to do with drunk

driving in their lifetime. Regardless of age, class, or gender drunk driving is a threat to everyone

including pedestrians, passengers and other drivers.

There are tests done on drivers that could tell the authorities whether a person is impaired

or not. These tests are called Field Sobriety tests. These tasks include people walking in a

straight line (usually known as the Walk-and-Turn test), standing with one leg off of the ground

(usually known as the One-leg stand test), and last but not least, blowing into a BAC Tracker
8326475
3

which gives an officer the percentage of your BAC. There are plenty more tasks that the

authorities will test people on to make sure that nobody is getting away and putting lives in

danger. Most of the time that the Walk-and-Turn test was tested it was correct 68% of the time.

Most of the time that the One-leg stand test was tested it was correct 65% of the time. Most

people over the age of 65 have a difficult time doing these tasks because of disability issues or

other problems having to do with their body making it hard for them like leg difficulties, back

problems, and even hearing issues.

The first Breathalyzer was invented by Dr. R. N. Harger in 1938. Before that, balloons

were used to test people's breaths. People were required to blow up a balloon and then let out the

air inside of the balloon into a certain chemical. If the chemical was to turn into a color it would

mean that the human was intoxicated. Depending on how dark the color turned, determined the

level of BAC a person had.

During 1919 all the way to 1933 all across the United States, alcohol was banned to be

sold and transported. The cause of the ban of selling and transporting alcohol was due to the 18th

amendment. The 18th Amendment basically states that any kind of alcohol is prohibited to be

sold or to leave anywhere to be transported somewhere else in the United States. Lots of states

went all out with adopting laws due to all of the deaths being caused because of alcoholic

beverages. The most car deaths that have happened are mainly caused between midnight to 3:00

am. It is the time where most of the driving while impaired happens.
8326475
4

There are plenty of things that we can do as people to protect our own kind. We can start

websites, make posters about how driving while intoxicated is dangerous, we can protest, we can

start up group sessions for people that have drinking problems, and we can also give rides to

people at parties that are drinking or we can just stop them from driving home until the alcohol

has processed their body. It takes approximately 6 hours for alcohol to process out of a humans

body system. We can also be on the lookout for people under age trying to buy alcoholic

beverages illegally. We all have friends who love to have fun but we can not call ourselves real

friends if we let them drive themselves home. We do not want to lose a friend just because we

did not take their car keys away. Let's make sure that people know that alcohol is not the answer.
8326475
5

Cites

http://facts.randomhistory.com/2009/08/28_drunk-driving.html

https://troopers.ny.gov/Traffic_Safety/Impaired_Driving/

http://www.madd.org/drunk-driving/about/drunk-driving-statistic

s.html?referrer=https://www.google.com/

http://www.liquorlaws.net/prohibition.html

https://www.scramsystems.com/blog/2016/09/nhtsa-reports-largest-jump-in-drunk-driving-
deaths-in-10-years/