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Driving under the influence of alcohol or drunk driving is defined as operating a motor vehicle while having some amount of alcohol in blood. Each U.S. state has its own limits for drunk driving but normally the individuals cannot exceed the limit of 0.08-0.10 percent. If humans have more alcohol in their bodies, they cannot drive safely, and their actions become illegal. Moreover, drivers receive some punishment, particularly, they can lose driver’s license for a year. However, defining drunk driving only as an illegal action is incorrect. It is a much broader notion. Drinking driving is an action that involves legal penalties, reduces driving skills, negatively affects reaction time and judgment as well as causes significant financial losses and makes a driver feel guilty.

Legal Penalties

Drunk driving is an illegal action, so the driver receives penalties for operating a motor vehicle in such condition. The first law concerning driving under the influence of alcohol appeared in state New York in 1910. Then, the similar law was adopted in California and the rest of the states. In the 1930s, researchers started conducting studies to determine how much alcohol the person needs to drink to lose the ability to drive safely. Having considered the scientists’ findings, legislators permitted citizens to operate a car if the concentration of alcohol in their blood is lower than 0.15 percent. Over time, laws became stricter because the number of car accidents was still high. Thus, scrutinizing the reasons of appearing of so strict laws towards drunk driving, one can deduce that it was done to deal with a significant number of issues on the road caused by drunk drivers.

The main reason for punishing the driver for this action is that that he/she cannot drive safely due to specific effects of alcohol. In fact, people may have some amount of alcohol in their blood but its concentration cannot be higher than 0.08 percent or 0.1 percent. Besides, individuals under 21 are not allowed to have any concentration of alcohol in their bodies. In forty-one state, the drunk driver loses his/her driver’s license. In addition, laws in the majority of the states require individuals to implement an ignition interlock device for a certain period. Apart from driver’s license issue and the necessity to drive with an ignition interlock device, drivers need to pay some fines and court costs. In the case of killing or injuring someone, legal penalties become even stricter. Therefore, combining drinking with driving is illegal and leads to a number of penalties. Defining drunk driving as a serious offense makes drivers realize that operating a car with some concentration of alcohol in their bodies is not funny or exciting. The mentioned understanding is particularly important for teenagers and young adults because they often do not realize the whole concept of drunk driving and ignore all words about it. The legal penalty then becomes the only thing that can prevent them from driving a car after having some drinks.

Deteriorating of Driving Skills

Drunk driving is the cause accidents due to reduced driving skills. In particular, a drunk person experiences the deterioration of motor skills and decline of peripheral vision. According to Aronson, drunk driver’s visual acuity is lower by 32 percent. Besides, distance and depth perception are worse when an individual is under the influence of alcohol. Thus, drunk driving mean extra low skills, which do not allow the person to operate a car safely. Even if police does not stop the driver and does not punish him/her for illegal actions, the individual suffers from the inability to drive properly, which, in addition, could be stressing and risky not only for the driver but also for his/her passengers and other people on the road. However, the biggest problem is that the person under the influence of alcohol cannot evaluate own driving skills objectively. The drunk person thinks that he/she can drive the same as without alcohol in the blood. Thus, it is important to know the definition of drunk driving before opening the door of a car in the improper condition. Moreover, it is not enough to view drunk driving only as an illegal action. Much more important is to realize why it is illegal. Lastly, one can easily notice a direct connection between driving under the influence of alcohol and worsening of driving skills as well as a number of deaths and injuries on the road.

Reaction Speed and Judgment

Drinking and driving in a threat to own and other people’s lives due to adverse effect of alcohol on human body.

Drinking alcohol negatively influences reaction and judgment skills of the driver. Consider the statistics, people with the alcohol in blood respond 15-25% slower than when they are sober. Significantly, judgment deteriorates even if the person’s blood-alcohol concentration reaches 0.02%. Slow reaction and poor judgment skills are regularly the reasons of many car accidents. However, the drunk person cannot realize these effects, so he/she decides to drive a car. This situation is the same as with deteriorating driving skills. When the person is sober, he/she can assess his/her skills and abilities objectively, but when the individual is drunk, he/she loses this understanding. Lastly, the physical instincts and the desires of having fun prevail over the logic.

It is particularly common for teenagers and young adults, who cannot control their desires and emotions when they are drunk. In addition, they cannot evaluate their reaction and judgment skills and lack the responsibility for their lives and lives of other people. It probably became one of the reasons of creating zero tolerance laws, which forbid drivers under 21 to have any concentration of alcohol in their blood. Another reason of strict laws towards young individuals is that their body cannot deal with alcohol in the same way as the body of adults can. Teenagers’ brains still develop, so drinking alcohol is much more dangerous for them and can easily influence brain functioning in a negative way. The other common consequences of drinking in early age include bad memory, problems with coordination and motor skills, and alcohol addiction.

It is worth highlighting one more time that drunk teenagers are the most dangerous drivers. Their reaction speed and judgment are even worse than the reaction and judgment of adults. At the same time, adults should not be relaxed either. Even twenty-eight grams of alcohol can negatively affect them (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). Although this amount of alcohol is allowed by the law, drivers can experience the reduction of visual skills after drinking it. For example, they can become unable to track a fast moving object or execute few tasks simultaneously. In other words, the individuals still can drive but their reaction and judgment skills become worse, so they should consider this effect.

Cost

Drunk driving is the cause of significant financial expenses. Presenting the statistics, in 2000, the USA lost $114 billion due alcohol-related car crashes. This sum of money includes about $51 billion of financial losses and about $63 billion of losses connected with deteriorating the quality of people’s life. When the driver causes some accident, he/she damages not only his/her motor vehicle and motor vehicles of other participants of the car crash but also ruins other objects. For example, drunk drivers often damage roads, bridges, buildings, and other infrastructure. Furthermore, car accidents usually involve significant medical costs: some people cannot work productively after car crashes because of health issues, so the society needs to spend additional money on helping them.

Concerning the death rate, the U.S. Department of Transportation claims that nearly 10,000 individuals died in car incidents in 2014 because some of the drivers were under the influence of alcohol. Thus, each third traffic-related death happened due to drunk driving (U.S. Department of Transportation). What is more tragic is that such car crashes cause deaths of people of various age groups including children. Consider the figures, 209 children (aged 0-14) died in 2014. Additionally, in the report, U.S. Department of Transportation also announces that more than a half of these children were in the cars of drunk drivers. All these children and adults could have brought some benefits to the society but alcohol had not allowed them to do this. Instead, the country has to spend additional costs on rebuilding damaged infrastructure and paying for health care services. Although some of these expenses are covered by insurance companies and drunk drivers, the total losses of the country remain outstanding.

Guilt

Drunk driving is the source of guilt. As it has been mentioned above, alcohol-related car crashes frequently involve deaths and injuries. Many children die in the cars of drunk drivers, which presupposes that drivers have families with them. Although the legal penalty is a strict measure, it is temporary. In contrast, remembering killing someone, especially, the member of the own family, can become a life-long punishment. In other words, the feeling of guilt is a much more serious problem than financial losses or health issues: the driver can cover the losses and improve health over time, but it is impossible to return the human life. Therefore, the individual should think many times before starting to drive after drinking some alcohol. Unfortunately, not all people are able to understand all the risks of drunk driving. They do not think about potential consequences or believe that their skills are good enough to avoid the accidents. Normally, individuals begin to understand all the effects of alcohol on driving when something tragic happens and it is too late to change the situation. Thus, the above-mentioned death statistics by NHTSA is more than figures for people, who lost their family members or friends in alcohol-related driving accidents. Finally, people that killed or injured someone in the car accident are also able to understand the whole tragedy of statistical data in the U.S. today.

In conclusion, an individual who is thinking about driving a car after few drinks should remember that drunken driving is not just minor illegal action with the following punishment but also much complex concept. In particular, driving under the influence of alcohol means that the person has worse driving skills, so he/she cannot evaluate the situation on the road properly. Although the law allows having some alcohol in the blood, it does not mean that the person has the same skills as when he/she is sober. In addition, the effects of alcohol on people depend on age. In this regard, teenage drivers are considered the most dangerous drivers. Besides, drunken driving means spending an enormous quantity of additional costs: every year, the society loses billions of dollars because of certain individuals desire to have fun. However, the most important component of drunk driving is the significant amount of deaths on the road. Children also become the victims of alcohol-related car crashes as they regularly ride in the car of the drunk driver. The death of people forces drivers to feel guilty the rest of their lives: they can deal with legal penalties and financial losses but remembering killing someone is the punishment that is much more difficult. On the other hand, the above-mentioned facts about drinking and driving do not prevent humans from getting behind the wheel. Most of people start to realize their responsibility only after something tragic happens. Finally, when the person is drunk, he/she cannot control his/her actions, so drunk driving is still common. Only realizing all the negative effects of driving under the influence of alcohol can significantly improve the situation.

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