Molly Friedman

News pod

Driving under the influence

            Many kids these days have been getting behind the wheel under the influence of drugs and alcohol. This is not a safe thing. Many of the kids end up hospitalized. Sheriffs across the country are trying to prevent this by creating programs to help.

            Driving under the influence is underestimated again and again. In 1997, 6,189 Americans were killed by alcohol-related crashes, accounting for nearly half of all traffic fatalities. That is a person killed every 32 minutes. Let that sink in. But those are just casualties. An additional 327,000 Americans were injured in crashes in which alcohol was involved -- roughly one person every other minute.

            Drunk driver effects more than just the drunk drivers. Innocent pedestrians and sober drivers get hit every day by drunk drivers. A little over half of the Americans killed in alcohol related crashes were the intoxicated drivers themselves, or sometimes other drunk drivers. While driving intoxicated vision is blurry, judgment is off and attention is low, they are not fit to drive. Even with people knowing this they get behind the wheel every day and the same thing happens.

            Underage drinking is a large part of the dilemma. Kids tend to drink and drive more than the average adult. Not to mention their lack of driving experience. Even the most respectable of kids get behind the wheel when they have had a few drinks. Even going a few blocks can lead to disaster. A lot of teenagers are addicted to alcohol. At this age it is a very dangerous thing. But with the help of programs that are being put into action the number of alcohol-related fatalities have been declining slowly. Maybe in a couple of years the fatalities will decrease to even lower.

            If you get caught driving under the influence there are severe consequences. Not only are you putting yourself in danger, you are putting others in danger to. Police do not tolerate that and if you are caught you will get a ticket and in certain circumstances you could go to jail. And if you are underage the consequence is more intense, not only are you drinking while driving, you are doing it underage. We set a drinking law for a reason and they expect people to follow it.

            Many people take that risk every day. Many die and get injured every day. But will you be smart and be above the influence. Save lives, think about it. You don’t want to end up in a hospital bed within the next week. Help prevent drunk driving, you never know when you will loose someone you care about.