Accidents happen just about every second somewhere in the United States. A great percent of these accidents are due to the effects of someone under the influence of alcohol. Drunk drivers are much more susceptible to get into a car accident, because of many factors. While under the influence, your vision is greatly decreased, making driving nearly impossible. You also have a horrible sense of judgment, meaning you might possibly find it okay and normal to decide to jump your car off a cliff. Your reaction time is also greatly increased. This means that it takes longer to make last second decisions, so even if your judgment is proper, you won’t be able to follow through and avoid accidents.
The problem is that way too many people don’t realize or understand the effects that alcohol has on your mind while driving. A great amount of car accidents occur while someone is under the influence because they either A: Don’t think they’re even intoxicated or B: Think that even though they are intoxicated, they’re fine to drive. Some people even believe that being intoxicated while driving can improve their ability to drive. This is actually impossible; there is no way that drinking while driving can actually improve the ability of someone to drive. This greatly increases the likeliness of getting in an accident.
There has to be a solution to this problem. For one thing, people have to understand that they shouldn’t drink and drive their selves. Secondly, people who aren’t drinking either need to convince people who are drinking to stop, or make sure that they can give them a ride back HOME, and not to another party or somewhere else where they would require another ride, or driving back home their self.
Car pooling is a great solution to avoiding the risk of a drunk driver. When someone drinks and drives, there’s the obvious risk of an accident. But usually these drunk drivers are either coming from the bar or a party. Most of the time a party. At the majority of parties with alcohol, there is someone who refuses to drink or simply won’t drink because they know they’re going to have to drive home later that night. The obvious solution is to have the people who aren’t going to drink give everyone else a ride home possible. Of course this isn’t entirely fair to the people who decide to remain sober at the party, but it prevents the death or serious injury of potential friends.
I once knew someone who was caught drinking and driving, which isn’t all too uncommon; a lot of people drink and drive today. However, this specific person stopped at what she thought was a four-way stop, and drove into the immediate path of another vehicle. All of the passengers and the driver were injured in the horrific accident. The only person in the car who was drunk was the driver. How much sense does it make to let the only drunk out of a group of 4 people, 3 who have their legal driver’s license and were legal to drive at the time, to drive!? There were 2 others in the car who were completely sober, and could have done the driving. This could have prevented serious injuries, and the death of one.
So when you really get right down to it, accidents occurring while under the influence are out of pure stupidity of the one behind the wheel, and quite often the other people in the car for just going along with it! It’s just like bullying; they say if you don’t do something about it, then you’re part of the problem as well. The easiest way is to just not drink and drive!
