Driving Under the Influence

Every year 10,000 people die from accidents relating to driving while under the influence of alcohol. This means that over 10,000 families are affected and have lost a loved one to an accident that could have been well prevented. I believe teenagers drive while intoxicated because they feel like they have no other option. They feel as if they are the only person who can drive themselves home and gaining help from parents or others is too much of an inconvenience or can result in consequences. I hope to confront my peers about the problem at hand and help them to understand the dangers and preventions of this issue that seems to take root in teens. I believe by educating and emotionally connecting with teenagers, this problem can be drastically prevented.

First, the only way to help start the education and prevention of driving while under the influence is to address it. By letting teenagers know the statistics of the deadly outcomes it might help them understand the severity of the situation and how many lives are really being affected by their actions. Also, making it known that these choices they make to drive while under the influence affects not only them but the innocent people driving around them. Teenagers don’t yet understand all the consequences that come with driving and the opportunities that can present themselves to drink and drive until they get in the situation. Then it’s up to them to make the right decision right then and there when they are experiencing it. The education system has done a good job at raising awareness about the dangers and impacts it could have on one’s life, but I fear most students don’t take the knowledge seriously like they should. Because the facts and cautions are coming from the school I believe the kids don’t think the problem of drinking and driving is that serious and they’ll take the advice with a grain of salt. I think reminding them of the laws and sentences that they could be punished with by driving under the influence could also help them understand the severity of their actions. Making sure they know the consequence of them going to jail for this could help inform them that it is their choice alone to do this.

Second, I think educating the kids already driving or who are learning to drive about the effects alcohol can have on your system is also important. This can help them understand that not only is alcohol bad for underage kids, but it also affects the body and brain to where driving and making decisions becomes difficult to accomplish. The kids drinking only do it for fun and don’t understand the effects alcohol can have on an underage body in the long run. Abusing alcohol can do damage to your central nervous system, cause chronic pancreatitis, liver cancer, and much more. Another thing teenagers don’t understand is that we have less problem-solving and decision-making experience which can be tremendously affected by the alcohol one consumes. It’s not a good idea to get behind a wheel of a car and not be able to make a decision, it could lead to someone losing their life. Teenagers don’t care about what it does to them or others once they get behind a wheel, all they know is that it’s “bad to drink and drive” because that is what we’ve been taught. But I think if teens knew the scientific facts and damage alcohol has on their bodies, they might think twice about drinking at all which could cause less accidents in general.

Lastly, I believe raising awareness against driving while under the influence is one of the keys to solving this problem. If people know and see how it has directly affected someone’s life, they are less likely to get behind a wheel while intoxicated. People are connected by emotions and if they knew the sorrow someone had to experience from an accident it could prevent them from doing something that would cause the same feeling. Hearing personal stories from people who have been directly affected by drunk driving can be effective in getting teenagers to see the possible devastation they can cause in someone’s life by getting behind the wheel intoxicated. With the help of social media, it has become easier to reach out to teens about the awareness of issues like this. They are able to read for themselves the impact someone’s decision to drink and drive had on a family’s life, and the innocent life that was taken away too soon. Experiencing the same pain and having sympathy for these people that have been affected can create a decision in people’s lives to not ever drink and drive. It’s easier not to do something if you’ve made a permanent decision in your life to not ever do that thing, because you’ll always think of it in the moment of the decision.

Although many people know the risks of drinking and driving, they still do it. But the question is why? When teenagers decide to drink, I think it’s mostly because they are curious. It’s something that they’ve never tried and it’s a thrill to do something they’ve been told repeatedly not to do. But drinking and driving is different. It never ends well and every student has been told about the devastation caused by these fateful decisions to get behind a wheel while intoxicated. I think teenagers are inclined to drink and drive because of the rules and laws placed on the alcohol. When someone doesn’t want to get in trouble for something they’ve done, they’re not going to tell anyone who could get them in trouble. So obviously when kids are drinking they’re not going to call their parents or someone older to come get them because of their fear of the consequences. They believe they have a less chance of getting caught if they do everything they would normally do if they hadn’t been drinking, such as drive themselves home. It only takes a second for things to go wrong while driving and intoxicated teenagers don’t understand that which is why it hardly ever ends in them getting home safe.

I believe that to help conquer our problem of people driving while under the influence we have to create an emotional connection with them. By teaching them the consequences and impacts it has on everyone’s lives, we can help them make the decision not to get behind the wheel while under influence. Although it’s inevitable to achieve the goal of eliminating all underage drinking and driving under the influence, it is possible to lessen the bad outcomes with education.