The reason why I chose to write a paper about this topic is because over the summer I had a friend who died in a fatal car wreck. There was no alcohol involved but it got me thinking about how many car wrecks there were in a day. How many people die because of other people's stupid decisions? Almost every other day while I am driving I see a car wreck. Living in America I know that we have a problem with drinking and driving which cause most accidents. Thinking upon this I decided to write about this subject.
There have been countless deaths related to alcohol but car accidents while under the influence of alcohol is the top killer. In fact every 30 minutes someone in the U.S.A. dies from an alcohol related crash. In 1982, 101,703 drivers, passengers and pedestrians were involved in alcohol related accidents within the United States. In 1994, 1,488 people died in the U.S. from alcohol related motor vehicle accidents. Alcohol related accidents are also the leading cause of death among American teenagers. In the state of Utah there has been a total of 326 deaths from car accidents, and 26.3 percent of those 326 fatal crashes were alcohol related. Alcohol related traffic injuries cost U.S. taxpayers about $15 billion per year.
Enoch Gordis, M.D. who is Director of The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) says "Progress has been made in reducing the consequences of drinking and driving; the percent of alcohol-related crash fatalities has declined from 43.6 percent of the total number of traffic crash fatalities in 1986 to 37.4 percent in 1992". I find this shocking that it "reduced" when consequences were lowered. In Utah the Blood Alcohol Content level (BAC) is .08. In some other states it is .1. On your first offense you get your license suspended for 90 days. Other states vary. They can be anywhere from 2 days to 6 months. Some states restore your license anywhere from 10 to 45 days.