Don’t be Dumb – Don’t Drink and Drive

Drinking and driving has been an issue for America since people started dirivng. The number of deaths and accidents as a result of drunk driving is unacceptable and there must be a federal initiative to combat this behavior. People who drink and drive have no consideration for thesmelves or others and along with the influence of alcohol could not care less if something happened.

Alcohol is classified as a depressant. This means that alcohol slows brains activity. In terms of how this affects driving, driving under the influence causes slower reaction times, disracted driving, blurred vision and other harmful factors that can result in an accident. The fact is that people have easy access to alcohol and then no one is watching over them to make sure they do not drive anywhere. Some bartenders take note of the intoxication levels of their customers and call them a ride, but that should not be the responsiiblity of the bartender or lender.

Additionally, when under the influence of alcohol frontal lobe activity is low leading to the making of bad decisions. To a sober person, the thought of driving while drunk is obviously a terrible idea, but to a drunk person who can not really gadge how they really are, “it could not hurt.” The government can not all together stop people from making bad choices but they can use preventative measures. Preventative measures have been shown to have better effects than punishment especially when done early in someone’s life. The drunk driving seminars and lectures in schools have been beneficial in getting the word out about this issue.

In my opinion, there is not much more the federal government can do to punish drunk driving. They could increase the punishement, but this would only put more people in jail and likely would not teach much of a lesson. As a society, there needs to be a consesus of holding ourselves and eachother accountable for drunk driving. The government is only a third party in this issue. We as the people must stand up together and fight this issue.