Carelessness of Drinking and Driving, 1st Place Winner Traffic Safety Eassy | Schools

By: Paulette McLeod

1st Place Winner of the Richard Lynn Daniels Traffic Safety Essay Challenge

Junior at Twiggs County Middle High School 

Carelessness of Drinking and Driving

                Would you like to be on the road with a bunch of careless drivers?  I hope your answer was no.  I am Paulette McLeod, a current junior at Twiggs County High School, and I believe drinking and driving is the most careless thing anyone could do.  Not only do you put your life in danger but everyone else around you as well.  I strongly disagree with impaired driving.  People should think twice about all the negative situations that can arise from drinking and driving.  Impaired driving is a very serious matter because people have actually lost their life due to people drinking and driving. 

                Drinking and driving can lead to disasters such as car crashes.  Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens and one out of three are alcohol related.  When under the influence of alcohol your brain and body doesn’t function normally.  Why would you operate a vehicle when you don’t have the ability to see clearly, speak clearly or even think clearly?  When intoxicated you are at a high risk of being in an accident that can lead to death or serious injuries to yourself or others.  In 2009 on average one person died every 48 minutes due to impaired driving.  Just think of the lives that can be saved if people would stop drinking and driving.

                Since drunk driving has claimed the lives of so many people, something has to done to end it.  I could form a campaign called Family and Community Against Drunk Driving (FCADD).  The motto would be “Striking down drunk drivers for a safer future.”  The main goal would be to eliminate the number of impaired drivers so more lives can be saved.  The campaign will push for new laws to be passed regarding impaired driving.  First time offenders of impaired driving will have sixteen hours of community service, fined up to one thousand dollars, required to talk to teens about the dangers of drinking and driving, and required to take a defensive driving class.  The second time you are charged with D.U.I. it will be counted as a felony.  In addition to the new laws that will be passed, our campaign will give three-hundred dollar cash rewards for anyone who reports impaired drivers to police and has proof of the crime. 

                In order for the campaign to be effective I must get the message out to the people in our community, so they can be involved.  I could make brochures about the dangers of impaired driving for the campaign to pass out to the people in the community.  I could mail brochures out to people and place them in stores to help get the message out.  I could also make a commercial about my campaign.  I could have campaign representatives talk about the campaign, its goals, and the new laws we will push to pass.  I would also have a police officer on the commercial talking about the dangers of impaired driving.  I believe my campaign will be effective in our community.