Drinking and Driving

We have all seen the documentaries, heard the speeches, and read the PSAs. But no matter how many times we are faced with the facts, the statistics of teenage drinking and driving never fail to be horrific. Drivers ages sixteen to twenty are seventeen times more likely to die in a car accident if they are inebriated. Alcohol is implicated in sixty percent of teen deaths from car crashes. In a month, it is estimated that high school drivers drink and drive more than 2 million times. All these and more are terrible facts that we face today when we give teenagers the responsibility to sit behind the wheel.

Maybe you have experienced the personal grief of losing someone to a car accident. Maybe you have experienced that acute sense of fear as your car begins to swerve off the road. But maybe you have never been a victim of teenage drunk driving. I myself have never been in such a situation. You look at the numbers above and shrug your shoulders. Why should you care? It is possible that you yourself see no problem in having a drink or two and then taking your car out for a spin. Here, science proves you wrong. In Driver’s Ed, the instructors remind us that alcohol is a depressant, which means that it slows down your central nervous system. This negatively impacts decision making and reaction time, both of which are essential to driving. In teens, this is an even more sobering issue. For female brain development full maturity is not reached until the age of twenty-one, while males develop later at the age of twenty-five. In either case, the brains of teenage drivers have not finished developing. Because of this, the effects of alcohol are much more serious for teens. They also are not as likely to notice the effects that alcohol has on them, such as slurring and sleepiness, leading them to get behind the wheel without thinking that they are under the influence. The prefrontal cortex and frontal lobe are not fully developed, so teens already have lapses in judgment, impulse control, and decision making. When the factor of alcohol is thrown into the mix, these lapses only become more frequent. With the addition of severe loss of coordination and the heightened possibility of blackouts, drunk teen drivers are many times more dangerous than adult drunk drivers.

So why do teens still drink and drive? There is no one simple answer. Of course, it is illegal for alcohol to be sold to those under the age of twenty-one. However this by no means is a guarantee that alcohol does not find its way into the hands of adolescents. Seventy percent of all teenagers admit to drinking alcohol. Minors who drink are four times more likely to develop alcoholism than adults. In the US, it is estimated that 3.3 million alcoholics are teenagers. Drunk driving casualties are not the only problems that result from teenage consumption of alcohol. Young people who drink are also more likely to partake in drugs, smoke, and be victims of robbery or assault. Even with countless messages against teenage drinking, many still find themselves intoxicated at a young age. Peer pressure is a large factor in teenage drinking. Studies have shown that teens overestimate how much their friends drink. If they perceive alcohol as normal or common among their friends, they may feel pressured to drink in order to not be seen as a “wimp” or “goodie goodie.” While how teens perceive alcohol consumption is definitely impacted by how the adults in their household treat it, they are the most influenced by those at the same age as them. Whether they are directly asked or offered an alcoholic beverage or they just see the people around them drinking, it can be tempting to accept in order to fit in. Alcohol is the most common drug, and it has the most widespread use across all geographic and cultural groups. It can relax and temporarily reduce stress. For teenagers with insecurities about fitting in, such a sensation can be very appealing. The buzz of a feel-good feeling can also extend to an impression of invincibility. It is easy for teens to excuse their inebriated state as”not a big deal.” In believing that nothing can possibly harm them, they mistakenly assume that they can still handle themselves on the road. This, of course, is a very dangerous assumption. In a chain of bad decisions, from choosing to participate in underage drinking to getting on the road while under the influence, teens put themselves and the lives of others at serious risk.

The consequences of teenage drinking and driving are weighty. There is no slap on the wrist and easy dismissal with a warning not to do it again. Adolescents caught drinking and driving have their licenses suspended for a number of years. Most importantly, teen drinking and driving is a criminal offense. Even though many are under eighteen, a DUI can still end up on their permanent record. This can have its effects much later down the road, as employers require information about criminal offenses when they are hiring. If anyone is killed in a car accident involving teen drunk driving, the price to pay becomes much steeper. Of course, when teenagers first decide to take a drink, they often are not thinking that far ahead. This is why it is important to understand the ramifications that come with the poor decision of drinking and driving. In learning about them in our Driver’s Education classes, we can become better informed and make smarter decisions.

Thankfully, in the past thirty years there has been significant improvement in the education of the risks that come with drinking and driving for teens. This has led to the fifty-four percent decrease of high schoolers who drink and drive. However, there is still a lot of progress to be made. While schools push the message of responsible decision making and safe driving practices, parents should also talk to their children at home about the serious issue that is drunk driving and strive to become role models when it comes to abstaining from alcohol. In the classroom, teaching defensive driving methods can also increase teenage driver’s abilities to react and respond to dangerous situations on the road. The increasing transparency about the devastation the community faces with drunk driving can only help lower these cases further, creating safer roads for everyone.