Lisa Begum

Is drink driving becoming a huge problem in the 21st century?

Drivers who do not limit the amount of alcohol they drink exceed the drink-drive limit
which, leads to them causing an accident. The drink-drive limit in England, Wales
and Northern Ireland, is: 80 milligrams of alcohol for every 100 millilitres of blood in
your body and 35 micrograms of alcohol for every 100 millilitres of breath.

Drink driving is illegal because alcohol decreases your ability to respond quickly, in
situations where you need to think immediately. Drink driving results in you losing
your level of concentration and not be able to track cars nearby you.

Alcohol slows down your eye muscle function which, leads to your vision turning
blurry. Therefore if a driver goes over the drinking limit they will not be able to see
clearly, which could harm themselves, passengers or other drivers.

The House of Commons Transport Committee in it's report "Drink and Drug Driving
Law" (2 December 2010, 5: para 2) state that drink driving is a preventable activity
and the number of deaths it causes on our roads remain high.

People who are found guilty of drink-driving could be: banned from driving,
imprisoned or fined. Unfortunately several drivers chose to ignore the law which,
result in them having an accident.

The department of transport statistics prove that in 2012, 230 people passed away
due to drink driving accidents. Followed by 1,510 people who were either severely
injured or died. The victims of these crimes may be left with serious injuries where
they may not be able to continue with their daily routines.

It is unfair for innocent victims to face death or serious injuries because of reckless
drivers thus, if drink-driving crimes are reduced this would save lives and help
prevent peoples health from being damaged.

Drinking and driving can destroy lives and families as expressed by Mendralla and
Grosshandler (2012 pg 6) in, Drinking and Driving, What Now? This relates to an
article published by The Guardian edited by Helen Pidd (2010) which, informs
readers that lorry driver Dennis Putz ran over an innocent cyclist Catriona Patel, who
was training with her husband, as they were going to take part in a cycling event.
The article outlines how a forensic scientist concluded that during the time of the
crash Denniss alcohol breath reading was likely to have been 49 micrograms- 50%
over the drink-drive limit.

Mrs Patel husband was devastated by her death and Dennis was sentenced to
seven years imprisonment and disqualified from driving for life. Even though
Dennis will not be able to drive and will spend seven years in prison, this will not
bring back the life of Mrs. Patel and will leave her husband, cousins and parents
upset and heartbroken for life.

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Lisa Begum

If a person has a low tolerance of alcohol they may blame the government for their
accident, as they may be in the legal drink-drive limit however, they could still be
involved in a car accident. Alternatively if someone is aware that their level of alcohol
tolerance is low then it is their responsibility to limit themselves and make sure they
do not have too much to drink.

Some people argue that sober drivers kill many people through: speeding, using
their mobiles whilst driving, aggressive driving or inattentive driving. Implying drink-
drivers are not the only people to hold responsible for accidents. Car accidents are
not only caused by drink-drivers although, every accident that is harmful matters
whether it is speeding or drink-driving, it is still caused by negligent driving which has
to stop.

Offenders who have been arrested for drink driving may dispute that they were not
arrested due to reckless driving, though they were arrested because they failed a
breath test, implying there driving would have not affected anybody. Nevertheless
they are not alert of what they can do when they are drunk, as alcohol causes
dizziness which can lead to them losing their concentration whilst driving.

In the 21st century many crimes take place for instance: assault, burglary, fraud and
kidnapping. Drink driving is wasting police officers valuable time, as they could be
looking into cases like murder or rape.

If a driver is careful and decides to stay in the drink-drive limit they can prevent
themselves from having an accident. On the other hand, some drivers chose to
disregard the law and drink-drive which, leads to police officers having to stop them,
search them and give them a breath test which, delays police officers time as during
that time limit they could have helped a victim of a robbery rather than having to deal
with a reckless driver, who could control their own actions by not drinking over the
legal limit.

Victims of drink driving crimes have to face unhealthy situations because of other
drivers who have lack of responsibility.

To decrease the amount of drink driving rates, citizens need to consider the lives of
the general public. Furthermore if crime rates continue to increase the government
should introduce a new legislation where the punishment is more severe.

Nonetheless some victims of drink-drive accidents have argued that the drink-drive
limit should be reduced or should be zero, as if drivers are not permitted to drink and
drive this would decrease the amount of drink-driving crimes that are taking place. If
the government are able to introduce this law it would diminish a lot of drink driving
crimes, as right now drink driving is legal therefore, drivers chose to drive over the
limit. However if drink driving is illegal then this may result in less people drinking
and driving.

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Lisa Begum

Many drivers believe they drive normally or better then when they are drunk.
However they are unaware of what can happen. If your loved one died because of a
drink-driver you would not stand by your statement that drink-drinking is okay.

Drink driving kills and as a community if we know we can decrease crime rates such
as drink driving why dont we. The world would be a peaceful environment without
drink-driving crimes destroying innocent peoples lives.

Bibliography

Mendralla,,V.M and Grosshandler, J.G. (2012). Drink and Driving, Now What? 1st
edn. Ch 1. Pg 6.The Rosen Publishing Group, Inc.

House of Commons Transport Committee (2010) Drink and drug driving law. Pg
5.The Stationery Office Limited: House of Commons.

UK Government. (2015). The drink drive limit. [ONLINE] Available at:

https://www.gov.uk/drink-drive-limit. [Accessed 20 April 15].

Helen Pidd. (2010). Lorry driver who killed cyclist had godawful hangover. [ONLINE]
Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/nov/18/lorry-driver-killed-cyclist-
hangover. [Accessed 21 April 15].

UK Government. (2013) Reported drink and driving (RAS51). [ONLINE] Available at:
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/ras51-reported-drinking-and-
driving. [Accessed 21 April 15].