As of 2015, Canada had the highest percentage of alcohol related deaths among the 19 wealthy countries as a result of drunk driving. It is an issue that occurs every day in almost every part of the world and impaired driving is one of today’s biggest social issues but is still constantly being overlooked. I strongly feel that as a society and culture we need to do everything necessary to eliminate drunk driving as much as possible to stop it from continuing to hurt and take the lives of good innocent people.
Whether or not people ever intend to drink and drive, sometimes it’s just the result of poor decision making by individuals that are unable to evaluate the situation do to drunken impairment. It happens too often when individuals or a group of friends will go out to have a few drinks or to a party and the driver that is responsible feels that they need to drink as well to have a good time. At the time all the friends think it’s a good idea to drink as well because everybody should be allowed to have a good time. It’s not until the time where they need to leave when they realize they need to make a decision whether to drive home, find an alternative way home or plan to stay the night. This is the time when the person driving chooses whether or not to take the risk to drive impaired. They are often unable to weigh the different options they can take to safely get home and driving seems like the best choice so they don’t have to leave their car there or create any other minor inconveniences. Meanwhile, they fail to realize the possibility of legal troubles and encountering law enforcements but more importantly putting their lives and the lives of those around them in serious danger. It is in those moments when people forget to think about their loved ones, the families that they could be destroying, the lives that they could be forever alter, all because of a selfish act that can never be undone. These everyday situations that members of our society face prompt decisions where the slightest misjudgment can present severe and permanent consequences. Throughout the more recent years the crackdown on impaired driving has been increasingly strict although it still has been unable to reduce and defeat this issue. The one change that I would like to see in the future in efforts to completely eliminate drunk driving is a zero blood alcohol content level for all drivers as well as added features on cars that check your breath and will not start if the operator shows any alcohol content in their breath/blood.
Click here to download and listen to the audio version of my rant on drunk driving.