Drunk Driving: The Teenage Epidemic

Drunk Driving: The Teenage Epidemic

By Jackson Eames

It was April 28th when I got the call telling me that there was an accident. I stood there, speechless. I couldn’t begin to process what I had just been told. I had always thought, “something like this will never happen to me,” and yet, it just had. A close friend of mine had been involved in an automobile accident the night before and lost his life as a result. He had been hit by a drunk driver and crashed into a ditch. Calling one of my close friends and telling him that Blake was gone was one of the hardest things I had ever done, and I don’t want anyone else to go through what I had to. Driving under the influence is an epidemic in the United States, and thousands of people die from it every year. There have been many times where my friends tell me that they are going to a party, and every time, I always offer to be their designated driver. I won’t support their bad decision-making, but I will always make sure that if they do make a stupid decision, that they do it safely. So I go to their parties and don’t really enjoy myself most of the time, but I do it anyway. I have been affected by the dangers of drunk driving firsthand, and so I make it clear to my friends that if they need a designated driver, that I will always make sure they are safe. I don’t what happened to Blake to happen to them, and so I do everything I can to make sure that their stupid decisions are a little less stupid. But one person can only do so much. There are thousands of teenagers out there who don’t have a friend like me, who will work to keep them safe. So, there needs to be a different solution to solve this pressing problem.

One of the more drastic solutions would be to eliminate the human element from driving. Most automobile accidents occur because of human error, and so taking it out of the equation would help make the road a much safer place. A teenager can’t drive drunk if the car drives itself. No one can drive under the influence if driving isn’t even an option. If society were to fully implement self-driving cars, then the amount of death per year from automobile accidents would fall drastically. But such a solution is highly controversial. People will always be cautious of new technology, even if it does make one of the most dangerous places a whole lot safer. There would be outcries against the policy, claiming that this is Big Tech’s way of seizing even more power within society. But one can’t deny the facts. If every single car on the road was all part of the same self-driving network, then the amount of automobile death would fall next to nothing. No longer would drunk driving be a problem among teenagers, as they would no longer be able to operate a vehicle while drunk. But a solution such as this isn’t feasible to accomplish within the next fifteen years. Public opinion takes time to change, and so another solution must be thought of before one such as this is accepted.

A much simpler solution to solve this problem would be to put a breathalyzer in every car. This would ensure that people would drive sober, as the car wouldn’t start if they couldn’t pass the breathalyzer test. Of course, people would find ways to work around this problem, but it still would help reduce the number of drunk drivers on the road. This solution is also much cheaper and feasible than self-driving cars and could be implemented within the next couple of years. but I wouldn’t put it past determined teenagers to find a workaround. Hell, I could even think of a few myself, such as some kind of bellow to force air in and pass the test. The best solution to this problem already exists, and that is companies such as Uber and Lyft. But teenagers avoid using these platforms, as they are afraid of getting caught for underage drinking. If the drinking age was lowered, or the penalty for underage drinking was lessened, then teenagers would be much more inclined to practice a stupid pastime safely.

Drunk driving among teenagers takes countless lives each year, but there are solutions to this problem. Whether that be self-driving cars, or reducing the penalty for underage drinking, this is something that society can solve. One’s teenage years are the times when one makes stupid decisions, so it is important to make these as safe as possible. Teenagers are always going to go out and get drunk with friends, but it is possible to reduce the risk of drunk driving by implementing these lessons. Losing a friend to drunk driving is a terrible thing to go through, but if the right measures are put in place, then we can greatly reduce the number of people that have to go through this horrible event.