Custom «Intoxicated Driver » Essay Paper Sample

But these persons are not alone at fault. Adult consumers are too. They should realize that alcohol are poisons, and so use them only when their possible benefits may outweigh their harm. Yet if adults take alcohol for every problem or tension, or even for pleasure, why should youths avoid them? Is it surprising that young ones should reason: ‘If grown-ups use tobacco, get drunk and take pills, why shouldn’t I enjoy drinking alcohol myself? That parental alcohol use is a factor in children’s turning to alcohol has been documented by various studies. For example, a major Canadian study calls alcohol abuse a “learned behavior.”

Issues on Drunk Driving Probably Caused by Alcohol Addiction

In spite of all these efforts, the drunk-driving death toll throughout the world continues to rise. In Brazil one person is killed every 21 minutes—some 25,000 each year—in alcohol-related accidents. That is about 50 percent of all traffic fatalities there. In England and Germany, about one fifth of all traffic fatalities are said to be alcohol related. In Mexico, according to several sources, 80 percent of the 50,000 traffic fatalities are due to ‘human error, basically caused by drunk driving,’ reports Mexico City’s El Universal.

It is estimated that over 25 percent of traffic casualties in South Africa involve alcohol. In the United States in an average year, alcohol-related accidents result in some 650,000 injuries, of which about 40,000 are serious; over 23,000 people are killed—about half of the total traffic fatalities. Worldwide, every year an estimated quarter of a million human lives are snuffed out as a result of traffic accidents! According to The Toronto Star, this is “more than all those killed each year in wars, crimes and industrial accidents.”

In Britain the cost of a single road death is assessed at £252,000 ($400,000, U.S.). Why so much? Apart from what has been invested in the individual, his lost earning potential, and material damage, there is the expense of ambulance, hospital, and other services. Unsafe driving is costly indeed!(Awake! 13)

Out of desperation in attempting to curb the alcohol-impaired driver, a DWI Victims Panel was organized in Washington State, U.S.A. It has become part of the judicial process in sentencing those convicted of driving while under the influence of an intoxicant (Overbei 45). The program is now employed in many parts of that country. Its purpose is to bring offenders face-to-face with the tragic consequences of their irresponsible drinking. The guilty offenders are sentenced by the courts to listen to the victims and their family members and be made aware of the awful price that has