...The social issue I picked to write on is drunk driving, which in today’s society has become a huge issue. Back when I started driving, drunk driving was not looked upon the same as it does today. People who were involved in an alcohol related crash or accident were usually not punished like they are today. Along with that driving under the influence carried a well less penalty then it does today. Driving under the influence of alcohol is one of the most dangerous things you can do. There is a mass of information out there on how alcohol affects your body pertaining to driving. Excessive drinking has become a bigger problem in today’s world not only with college kids but with older people to. For example according to Tara Parker Pope (2012) “New research shows that four times a month, one in six Americans goes on a drinking binge, knocking back an average of eight alcoholic beverages within a few hours.” Society’s views on drunk driving have changed a lot due to awareness of it and the effects it has on people and families. It affects society in a huge way with the fact that a lot of people die every year from being hit or hitting someone else in a drunk driving accident. Every year thousands of people are involved in an alcohol related accident, which effects many people from their family and friends to the people they got in an accident with. Drunk driving as a whole effects the whole society, at some point in your life you will of known someone who either was seriously hurt...
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...Neil Zimmermann PULSE News Article A1-A8 Oct 30 2011 For Drunk Drivers, a Habit of Judicial Leniency According to this article, judges have been giving a lot of drunk drivers second chances- chances that they should not be granted. In the state of Massachusetts there is an acquittal rate of 80 percent for drunk driving cases, which is higher than any other state in the United States. Proponents for a stricter sentencing/penalty system for drunk drivers who previously scorned soft juries now focus their attention on the judges. A judge is not doing anyone else a favor by giving these drunk drivers a second chance to drink and endanger another civilian. There have been instances mentioned in the article were drivers have sent others to the hospital and walked “out of the court free of the burden of a guilty verdict” (Carroll). The article goes on to talk about the reason for this phenomenon; there is a possibility that the judges empathize with the drunk drivers because of past experiences. Regardless, the laws need to be enforced. I chose this article because I thought it specifically pertained to Aristotle’s motion of praise and blame. Here is a classic example of an action that is done in ignorance of particulars. The drunk driver made the decision to drink earlier on in the night, so even though his decision making process might have been altered from the alcohol, he is still responsible due to his former actions. In order to be virtuous he/she needs to understand...
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...whether or not to drive under the influence of alcohol faces a person, he often does not realize the consequences of his actions, and therefore makes an extremely uneducated decision. Many people believe that increasing fines for drunk driving offenders will play a significant part in the cutting down of driving under the influence. However, while stiffer DUI laws will look affective on paper, they will not make a substantial step in the fight against drunk driving. The only benefit of increased drunk driving fines goes to the law enforcement agency that collects the fines. Because the majority of DUI stops happen to individuals who do not believe that they have become drunk, a person who chooses to drive does not even consider the fine that he may receive, no matter the amount. If an intoxicated person believes that he has the ability to drive home safely, a new law passed by state representatives will not stop them. A state increasing its DUI fines, will not make the police notice a decline in the amount of drunken driving stops, nor a decreased amount of alcohol related accidents. The only change that would come from such an increase would come in a boost in state government funds pouring in from DUI offenders. While the fight against drunk driving seems to have no end, many other solutions exist besides the raising of fines. One such solution lies in education. If the general public becomes properly educated about the meaning of intoxication, they will have the ability...
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...Drunk Driving Drunk Driving Has drunk driving somehow affected your life? Do you know someone who has been convicted of driving under the influence? Are you guilty of this crime? Drinking and driving is still a major problem in the world today and I believe that more severe penalties should be implemented for first time offenders to perhaps reduce the high recidivism rate. I believe if I had a stiffer punishment for my first DUI, I might not have gotten a second DUI. Statistics don’t lie. About one-third of all drivers arrested or convicted of driving while intoxicated or driving under the influence of alcohol are repeat offenders. (Johnston,2011) Had these repeat offenders had harsher consequences for the first offense, the second offense may have been prevented. In 2011, 9,878 people died in drunk driving crashes. That is one every 53 minutes. Drunk driving affects everyone in a community and deaths related to alcohol take their toll. An average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before first arrest.( Vital signs,2011) Getting caught and convicted for DUI the first time doesn’t necessarily mean that it is the first time the person has been drinking and driving. My first DUI was when I was 21 and my second DUI was when I was 31. I was drinking and driving for ten years and was never caught. The reported numbers are scary enough and they are only the people that get caught. Even scarier are the amount people who aren’t caught every time they drink and drive...
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...Brittany Morgan 13 March 2009 J. Stockdale WR 122 11:30 Drunk Driving Between World War One, World War Two, and the Vietnam War, five hundred thousand one hundred and sixty-one people were killed; drunk driving has killed an estimated one point seven million people since World War One (Fehrenbach). According to the MADD group, fifty to seventy-five percent of drunk drivers whose licenses are suspended continue to drive. Lives are lost because of people’s selfishness and dangerous activity while under the influence of alcohol, and the punishment does not fit the crime. According to the Mothers Against Drunk Driving advocacy group, About three in every ten Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash at some time in their lives. On average someone is killed by a drunk driver every forty minutes. In two-thousand seven alone, an estimated twelve thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight people died in drunk driving related crashes (MADD). Edgar Snyder and Associates reports that alcohol-related car crashes kill someone every thirty-one minutes and injure someone every two minutes. In Oregon alone in two-thousand and seven, four hundred and fifty-five people were killed by drunk drivers. Thirty-three percent of those drivers had a point zero eight blood-alcohol content or higher. Frequent drunk drivers are responsible for almost sixty percent of alcohol-related fatalities (Snyder). Obviously, drunk driving is a huge issue. Right now, there are several punishments...
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...Perkins Persuasive Speech I.Attention 1. You tube video clip, “Dedicated to Loved Ones Lost” 2. Every day in America, another 28 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes. (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration 2011.) II. Central Thesis Drunk driving is an epidemic that continues to have severe and life threatening consequences for those involved, if we simply take a few steps against drunk driving we can help decrease this epidemic. III. Body A. Need: Drunk driving occurs everyday, and many lives are taken because of one person choice. 1. Every 52 minutes on average, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash (10,288 people in total in 2012). (Madd.org “About drunk Driving”). 2. 900,000 people are arrested each years and 1/3 of those are repeat offenders. (drinkinganddriving.org “Drunk Driving Statistics”). 3. The annual cost of alcohol- related crashes totals more than $51 billion. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “ Impaired Driving: Get the Facts”). 4. An average drunk driver will drive drunk 87 times before being pulled over. (Word Press, “Statistics”). B. Satisfaction: We all need to actively help prevent drunk driving. 1. Plan ahead. a. Put money aside for a taxi. b. Have a designated driver. c. Have a back up designated driver. 2. Never let anyone drive drunk. a. Offer to drive them home. b. Offer to get them a taxi. c. Stop being afraid to speak up. 3. Hosting a party a. Make sure people are leaving with a sober driver...
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...Three people are killed every two hours due to alcohol-related highway car crashes (Drunk). The state of Virginia and even the United States of America continues to let off driving while under the influence of alcohol with minor punishments that do not even ensure the ongoing safety of the drivers on the road. The punishment for a first offender should be imprisonment to make the roads a safer place. The penalties set in place now does not ensure that the offender does not get behind the wheel of a car while intoxicated. The offenders do not learn any lessons by the penalties they are given currently. As the penalty is now, people are not taking this offense seriously. In fact, young people on Youtube have been posting videos of themselves drunk like it is a normal, inconsequential action (Primack). If there was a new penalty put in place that imprisons first offenders of drinking and driving, the numbers of alcohol-related car accidents would surely drop significantly, and stop the younger generation drinkers from thinking it is impossible for them to get in trouble for their action. The penalties for driving while under the influence are too loose compared to how serious the crime is. In the state of Virginia, the penalty for a first offender of driving while under the influence is a license suspension and a fine of a maximum of three-hundred dollars (DUI). This punishment is not nearly as harsh as it should be. Suspending an offender’s license does nothing to ensure the...
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...Impaired driving is a critical problem in the United States. When intoxicated people decide to operate a vehicle, they endanger everyone that is on the road. The Public Service Announcement shows a drunk man driving his truck and swerving on the road. The drunk driver collided with another vehicle with a husband, wife, and daughter in the car and killed them. In the Public Service Announcement (PSA),”Drunk Driving Kills”produced by the Governor's Council on Impaired Driving, the councils presentation of pathos prevail over ethos and logos, but ethos and logos is shown in the PSA. The emotion that the PSA, “Drunk Driving Kills” gave off to the audience was powerful. The video showed a family in a car. The husband, wife, and their daughter....
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...Special license plates for drunk-driving offenders originated in Ohio and Minnesota. In 1994, Ohio was the first known state in the United States to require these special plates. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, in Ohio, the plates are bright yellow with red numbers, require a BAC .17 or higher, and require a second conviction. In addition, if the DUI offender owns more than one vehicle then the DUI plates must be added to every owned vehicle. The DUI offender also pays a fine of up to $1,000 and can face jail time up to six months. Minnesota’s DUI license plates are white with blue or black text and the numbering on Minnesota’s special plates begins with a ‘W’ and they’re often reference as whiskey plates. In Minnesota,...
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...lifestyle, which can lead to the more socially acceptable, but illegal choices. According to Shelia Sarkar, and Marie Andreas, on a poll done with 1430 teen drivers, 880 of the teen drivers had traffic violations, which included speeding, drag racing, and driving under the influence. Younger drivers are more likely to overestimate their driving skills, especially young male drivers. When a driver overestimates their driving skills, they tend to be more agreeable to the riskier, and even lethal behaviors. Driving while under the influence is one of the more dangerous behaviors at any age, but especially for a teen driver who does not have the experience that an older driver does. It has been proven that those teen drivers, who were exposed to drunk driving, have a much higher chance of actually practicing those themselves. According to the Dallas Morning News Crime Blog, a situation occurred where a mother picked up 8 teens in her car, two of them being her twins who were celebrating their 15th birthdays, from a movie theatre in their town. Before she even managed to leave the parking lot, she had almost run...
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...Are Drunk Driving Laws too Lenient? Roberta Williams BCOM/275 July 22, 2014 Facilitator: Terrice Watson 3 family members, 1 other man killed in high-speed, head-on car crash on Southwest Side Chicago police investigating whether alcohol was involved Three of the men killed were family, lived together and, for the last 11 years, worked together at McCormick Place. Otis Thomas labored at the convention center for 25 years, and he helped get jobs there for his son Otis Jolliff and the younger man's cousin Theodore Jolliff, both 28. (Mitchum, R and Kridel K, 2008) I see the image every day of my life; the three caskets lined up head to foot. My brother lay lifeless between his son and his nephew; the son of his identical twin brother. Lives so entwined because identical twin brothers had one son each by two sisters, so here lies husband, fathers, sons, brother, grandfather, uncles, nephews, first cousins and an unimaginable pain of a family so rooted in love and relationships that was torn asunder by a drunk driver. Fathers and sons so close, they even worked together. One twin decided he would get someone else going his way to drop him off. That decision saved his life. The other three headed the same way and a drunk driver barely under the legal age for alcohol killed all three of these beloved men and died himself that fateful night. Do I feel that drunk driving laws are too lenient? Hell yes!!! I do, but statistics of nationwide fatalities and accidents and...
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...traffic-related deaths in the United States.” According to the CDC. Drunk driving is one the biggest dangers in the world, when it comes to driving. Usually drunk driving physically affects people that aren’t drinking, more than the drunk driver themselves. This is because when someone is drunk their reflexes are very delayed, so when they are about to get in an accident they don’t tense up their bodies and their bodies moves with the vehicle on impact. This plays a big role on how badly you are injured or not. When people are sober, and they are about to get in an accident, they tense up which causes them to try and resist impact. Doing this is what causes so many injuries and this is why drunk drivers get away without even a scratch so often in accidents. Even though drunk driving car accidents may cause more physical pain to the non drunk drivers, often times the emotional pain is too much to bare when a drunk driver has killed someone in an accident. I couldn’t...
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...is still Drunk Driving Comm215 Buzz Driving is still Drunk Driving When will we come together and realize drinking and driving destroys families? Everyday in America, 28 people die as a result to drunk driving. Each one of those deaths was someone’s mother, father, son, daughter, brother or sister and each one of those deaths could have been prevented. This is not me sitting here trying to convince you why would should not drink and drive; on the contrary, this is a wake up call America. This epidemic has severe life threatening consequences and could be decreased if we all took steps toward ending this epidemic. Everyday, someone drunk is commuting on the same streets and highways that you and I use; many lives are taken away because of the selfish act of one person. In 2012, 10,322 people died in drunk driving crashes, which came out to one death in every 51 minutes. The average drunk driver is said to drive 87 times drunk before he is ever pulled over with suspicion of drunk driving. About 12% of offenders are convicted of a second offence within 10 years. With statistics like that, you cannot help but to imagine that during every hour of the day, someone is on the roadways who has had too much alcohol to drink. Every year, 900,000 people are arrested for drunk driving and of those 1/3 of those are repeat offenders meaning they are simply going to do it again. Many years ago for example, an individual I knew had been arrested five times for drunk driving...
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...In 2012, 10,322 people were killed and approximately 345,000 were injured from drunk driving. Each crash, each death, and each injury impacts not only the person or people in the crash, but family, friends, classmates, coworkers and more. Even those who have not been directly touched help pay the $132 billion yearly price tag of drunk driving. This semester we have analyzed different actions from the perspectives of Kantianism, Utilitarianism, Consequentialism, and Virtue Ethics, so that’s what I have chosen to do for drunk driving as my last journal entry. Immanuel Kant believed acts were justified when they came from moral obligations. As humans we must treat everyone with respect, never treat anyone as a means to an end, and treat each person as an autonomous person. If someone chooses to drunk drive, it does not matter how old they are, they are not treating themselves or the other drives or pedestrians with respect. And if they lie to the passengers and say that they are sober, it is even worse. Therefore, under Kantianism, it cannot be considered to be a universal law. Consequentialism holds that the consequences of one's actions are the ultimate basis for any judgment about the rightness or wrongness of that action, in other words, “the ends justify the means.” The best possibility of an end when a person chooses to drunken drive is that they arrive at their destination. There are other means of transportation that could have allowed them to get their safety, and in...
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...Informative speech #2 Katarina Hastings Amen! Agreed! Facts Statistics Prevention Prevention Statistics Laws Facts Facts Prevention Statistics I dare you!... - Every day in America, 28 people die as a result of a drunk driving accident. - Drunk Driving costs the United states $132 billion a year. - Most people who have DUI's are not alcoholics. - December is Drunk and Drugged Driving Prevention Month. - Half of all holiday driving fatalities are alcohol related. - 50-75% of convicted drunk drivers continue to drive on a suspended license. - 2/3 of sentenced to incarceration are repeat offenders. - Age 21-24 caused about 34% of accidents. - Age 25-34 caused about 30% of accidents. - Age 35-44 caused about 25% of accidents. - Texas had 3,071 fatalities, 40% (1,437) are alcohol related. - In a group assign a designated driver. - Try to find a bar in walking distances of your home. - Call a cab or other public transportation. - Drink nonalcoholic drinks. - Annual total of text messages surged from 57 billion in 2005 to 1.8 trillion in 2010. - 1 in 5 drivers confess to surfing the web while driving. - Brain function decreases by 40% when trying to multitask. - A crash is likely to happen: 23x's more while texting 2.8x's more while dialing a number 1.4x's more while reaching for a device 1.3x's more while talking or listening on the phone. - 11 DEATHS HAPPEN EVERYDAY! - 2,600 traffic deaths are caused each year by drivers using cell phones. - 570,000 accidents...
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