Essay, Research Paper: Drinking And Driving

Should Blood Alcohol Percentages for Drunken Driving
Be Lowered?
Driving a vehicle while under the influence of
alcohol is one of the most dangerous things you can do.
Alcohol causes varying degrees of the following side effects
in everyone who uses it; dullness of sensation, lowered
sensory motor skills, lowered reactive or reflexive motor
responses, impaired thought processes, impaired memory,
impaired judgement, sleep or sleeplessness, and in extreme
cases can cause coma and death.”(Hardcastle 1). Would
anyone want a person on the road with these side affects.
Alcoholics have even worse side affects to alcohol. Look at
the picture above. How many times have you watched the
news and seen a reporter reporting at the scene of a drinking
and driving accident like this. How sad it is to think of one
man who died in such a accident. When he realized that he
was going to die, he asked his Mother "Please take care of
my babies. Keep them together as a family!" What if that
was a family member or friend or even you? What would
you do if you lost any of these people? To lower the
number of drinking and driving death and accidents in this
country we should lower the blood alcohol percentage.
People die everyday in this country, but did you
know that “Every 30 minutes someone in this country dies
in an alcohol related crash.”(Stone 1) If we lowered the
blood alcohol level from .10 to 0.08 there would be fewer
drinking and driving accidents. People do not realize that a
blood alcohol level of .10 makes you at high risk for getting
in an accident. At this level you will have “Slowed reaction
times, impaired motor functions, recklessness and "dare
devil" behavior.”(Hardcastle 1). Lowering the blood alcohol
level would increase the safety of driving. Less people
would be drinking and driving and more people’s lives
would be saved. If this law is passed you would still be able
to drink. Stone states that “A average 170 pound male must
consume four drinks in one hour to and the average 137
pound female must consume three drinks in one hour to
reach 0.08, according to the U.S. Department of
Transpiration.”(1). This is not at all bad. People can still go
out and have a few drinks with their friends and still be able
to drive. This law is not to stop drinking , it is to make our
roads safer, so that their are less drinking accidents.
Lowering the blood alcohol level would make a safer
driving experience for everyone on the road. It would make
people think before they drank one extra drink. Just think if
it was you who was hit by a drunk driver or your family. Do
you want to go through the emotional pain of losing
someone?
If the blood alcohol level is lowered from 0.10 to
0.08 it would have higher consequences on there person
charged for a DWI ticket. The offender would have to go to
classes and pay a higher fine for the crime. If the drunk
driver killed someone the time in jail would be around 8
years and 11 months. If the blood alcohol level was lowered
these would be the new consequences “Prevention measures
evaluated include license suspension or revocation,
impounding or confiscating vehicle plates, enforcing open
container bans, increasing penalties such as fines or jail for
drunk driving, mandating education for young
people.”(Hardcastle 4).
Opponents of the issue tend to appeal the counter
argument. Opponents feel that lowering the blood alcohol
level not change the number of death and drinking and
driving accidents. They feel that no one person will care.
The drinkers will still go out and become intoxicated
because it is not the blood alcohol level they are thinking
about it’s having a good time.
If these people who drink and drive have higher
consequences with lowering the blood alcohol level they will
think before they drive. An example of a higher consequence
would be that if a person got convicted of drinking and
driving he or she would have to spend time in jail no matter
what the charge. Lowering the blood alcohol level to 0.08
will increase the consequences and the offender will learn
after the first offence not after three of four. This will save
people lives and lower the drinking related accidents.
Police may now wait outside bars to arrest people
getting into their cars and driving away intoxicated. This
consequence may be seen as unreasonable, but these
consequences might safe your son or daughter. Higher
consequences along with lowering the blood alcohol level
will enforce the safety and may save a person you love.
Lowering the blood alcohol level will get some drunk drives
off the street and when they do become involved in an
accident they will pay the consequences.
Opponents feel that more people will become
mad about the consequences and lowering the level and go
out and drink more. They feel that police waiting outside the
bar is unreasonable and that it is taking this way to far.
Berman state “This legislature blackmail has one hitch: It
won’t work It does not address the cause of our nations
drunk driving problem-alcohol abuser who drive.”(2).
Berman is saying that it is not stopping drunk driving but
that it is only trying to alcohol abusers.
The opponents side does make a creditable
argument, but they would feel totally different if it happened
to them or a loved one. Opponents do not understand it’s
not the drinking we are trying to stop it is the death or
people we are trying to stop. Opponents will never
understand the impact that lowering the blood alcohol level
will have only families and our society. Opponents do not
see the changes it can have on a person. In conclusion the
blood alcohol level should be lowered. It will reduce the
number of deaths and help keep the roads safe. This step in
society will impact the whole country and will thereby
define what is legal and reasonable drinking. Lowering the
blood alcohol level might not change how people drink but
it may in fact safe their life. People will never understand the
devastating effects it will have on a person until they lose
someone they love.



Bibliography


Berman, Rick. “Should Blood Alcohol Percentages for Drunk Driving Be Lowered?.”
Reading and Writing Short Arguments. Ed. William Vesterman. California, Mountain
View:, 2000. 48-50.
HardCastle, John. “Impacts of Drinking and Driving.” (1999): Abstract. 4 Dec. 2000
. 1-4.
Stone Lee, Judith. “Should Blood Alcohol Percentages for Drunk Driving Be Lowered?.”
Reading and Writing Short Arguments. Ed. William Vesterman. California, Mountain
View:, 2000. 46-47.


Word Count: 1050