I. Introduction

A. If you don’t drink and drive, you are safe, right? Wrong. What if the person that swerves over the yellow line and hits you is drunk. Approximately 37% of alcoholic accidents are caused by repeat offenders. They shouldn’t have so many chances, and to prevent this I believe the penalties for drunk driving should be more effective. There are some ideas to do so like lowering BAC’s, zero tolerance, booze it and lose it, and ALR.

II. Body

A. Here are some sobering statistics about drunk driving.

1. A drunk driver kills someone every 30 minutes.

2. A drunk driver injures someone every 2 minutes.

3. On weekends between 1:00 and 6:00 a.m., 1 in 7 drivers is drunk.

4. You have a 2 and 5 chance of being involved in a drunk driving accident.

5. Why have we let alcohol wreck so many lives?

B. Drunk driving accidents are rated as one of the leading causes of death between the ages of 16-23. Why let it continue?

C. Thirty-two states have set the BAC at .10, although 16 states have lowered it to .08. Just the .02 that it is lowered by makes a big difference. By doing this it has a 10% reduction in alcohol crashes, deaths, and injury. With just these 16 states participating will lower 500 or 600 fatalities per year.

D. Zero tolerance is a law making immediate suspension of the license of any driver, under 21, with any measurable amount of alcohol in their system. This has lowered drunk driving fatalities by one fifth.

E. Another idea to reduce drunk driving, is the right to revoke a license if a driver fails a blood-alcohol test. This also reduces the number of fatalities.

F. North Carolina’s “booze it and lose it”, which includes all of the ideas present. Which, the effects have sky rocketed.

III. You might not think that these laws are going to make a big enough difference to take the time to change and enforce these laws, by saving any is better than none. You might also say it doesn’t effect you if you don’t drink, but that is not true. All it takes is the wrong place at the wrong time.

IV. Conclusion

A. Just by adding these few laws like lower BAC, zero tolerance, administrative license revocation, or the “booze it and lose it”, lives can be saved.

B. Being we are all potential victims, everyone can help by supporting community efforts, convey a good message, vote for foreign judges, and defend yourself by buckling up.

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