Drunk Driving

Drunk Driving Can Be Prevented!

Drunk driving is known by several euphemisms, to include driving under the influence (DWI), not in control, and operating a motorized vehicle with a blood alcohol level that is over the legal limit. While have an alcoholic beverage is no longer prohibited by the law, as it was in Prohibition days, it is mandatory to be acutely aware of how alcohol impacts each individual differently. It is a necessary evil to know how to tell that your bodily control is impaired, even deny you are legally drunk, and don't operate a motor vehicle under those conditions. It’s truly that simple of a solution!

Over than 15,000 deaths a year are the result of alcohol-related accidents. That’s a tragic death every 31 minutes and a non-fatal injury being recorded every 2 minutes. Those numbers are incredible to consider. It’s impossible to firmly say that having too many drinks only impacts the person drinking. The extremely sad reality is that of those deaths, many people were innocent passengers riding in either vehicle, not to mention the driver of the other motorized vehicle or even others not in a vehicle; not just the individual who drank and drove.

Drinking and driving is a non-discriminating crime that occurs by change and circumstance. The tragic result is affects greater than 1,000 families each month.

Drunk Driving Prevention Strategies

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) group was founded in 1980 to cause public awareness to the facts about drunk driving. Efforts by that group have contributed to bringing a decrease of more than 40 percent in traffic fatalities related to alcohol. But as shown in the above statistics, even that is not enough. In order to effect more change, MADD introduced a new campaign nationwide in November of 2006. The Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving has its goal to eradicate drunk driving throughout the USA.

MADD and its 400+ affiliates see attaining this result by writing a combination four-point plan to be implemented and embraced by all 50 states.

• Law enforcement that is highly visible. This includes twice yearly crackdowns at a minimum, and we can't forget consistent law enforcement involvement. These include monitoring sobriety checkpoints.
• Mandatory requirements for alcohol ignition interlocks. All convicted drunk drivers under these guidelines would be required to use an alcohol ignition interlock Breathalyzer device in order to operate a car. Just having this effort alone will greatly slow down the continuous revolving door of repeat offenders in the court systems.
• An international panel of safety experts created. Their focus will be to concentrate on how advanced technology can be applied to vehicles to help affect drunk driving. Suggested guidelines include having a moderate price, total reliability, configured at the current legal blood alcohol limit, and do not inhibit someone who is sober.
• Garner public support. These citizens should include every level of government officials and leaders in the community, as well as surviving victims and their families.

Eliminating Drunk Driving

Directly as a result of awareness by the public spurred along by MADD, injuries and fatalities due to drunk driving can be reduced even more. A key factor in achieving this is detailed training by those businesses that deal with people who have been drinking. Servers and bartenders need to be thoroughly trained properly to recognize out of control due to alcohol. Many establishments offer to pay for a taxi for customers identified as impaired by alcohol. Public programs encouraging designating ahead of time a non-drinking driver have gained popularity.

Once again, the best prevention method for drunk driving is for anybody who drinks to see how the amount of alcohol consumed directly affects driving judgment and reaction time. The key to totally eradicating drunk driving is to not drive after drinking alcoholic beverages, at any time.