Take the Driving Out of Drinking

Across the world, the extent of  drunk driving is not nearly known. Reliable statistics depend upon drivers being stopped, ticketed or arrested – and unfortunately  many drivers escape this routine.

You know how people will ask your pet peeves? Drunk driving is one of my top pet peeves. 

The reason I write about it now is because the problem is growing dangerously. People one would not expect to see in those headlines, are being stopped and arrested for drunk driving.

One of the problems with alcohol is what it does to your thinking, your judgment – which ironically is why many people drink. It gives many drinkers a sense of bravado, of being in control. It heightens their sense of confidence and unfortunately that includes their opinion about the ability to drive a vehicle.

Do these people really know what they are doing? They are behind the wheel of a one ton machine that is accelerating along a public road or highway, along with hundreds or thousands of other people who include children, newborn babies, grandfathers and grandmothers – many who do not drink and never have or will. Some of them might drink socially, rarely at home or at a party but they would never drive after drinking.

Yet here is this person who has consumed too much alcohol but does not think so, who believes in his or her ability to control a vehicle and is doing so at the grave risk of other people. Sadly, in some parts of the world drivers do not have to consent to a breath test, making it very difficult to prove they were drunk.

Laws need to be changed,  made stronger, and the criminalizing of  drunk driving  enacted and highly publicized. Fortunately, some new technologies are keeping drunk drivers from starting and operating vehicles, and we need more of this.

Many U.S. states now have in place laws making public establishments and even individual home owners directly responsible who allow drunk drivers to depart their location who later end up in an accident.

Do I think people should just stop drinking alcohol? Absolutely not! Drink until you are knee-walking drunk but do not – please do not – get behind the wheel of a car. Drink at home and stay there. Driving drunk is one of the most irresponsible things a person can do. It is like saying: I am better than everyone else, the highway is my kingdom. I am worthy of the risk. I am very important – more important than other people.