Prologue: The reason for my making this article is to instill in all Americans the need to see that there is a serious problem that is planning to be re-exposed This problem has actually increased in occurrence with a little help from celebrities. An increase of 6.25 percent has been made last year for this not-so-welcome intruder. Thanks to the recently-freed Paris Hilton, DUI or drunk driving would not have been a national issue.



According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration or report for 2005, a person gets injured every 2 minutes in a . Much worse, a person gets killed due to alcohol-related crashes every 31 minutes. That has actually worsened last year because a person gets killed on a similar situation in every 29 minutes.

Not only do people die, but it has also taken its toll on the livelihood of those people concerned. A total of US$51 billion worth of damages cost alcohol-related accidents including damages. Kansas, which ranked 33^rd on drunk-driving deaths, had $3.4 million worth of damages per fatality. However, costs have largely dropped to those who only got injured. Estimated cost per injured in Kansas would be $97,000. A normal family in Kansas would be having difficulty to spend as much as the median family income in the state stands at $43,725.

States which play host to big cities expectedly make up a majority to these occurrences. , , and , which altogether comprise the top 3 states in terms of alcohol-related fatalities, took up ? of the country's total in 2005. Out of all these recorded fatalities, majority of it would be people aged 20-29. 21 percent of all vehicular fatalities that involved children below 14 years old would be alcohol-related .

All in all, close to 1.4 million drivers were arrested in 2005. The startling fact is that not even one percent of the real number of cases have been reported. Self reports due to alcohol-impaired driving have been recorded 159 million times in 2005.

If there was any consolation regarding this matter, there was a huge decrease in percentage if you would compare 2005 with 1982. There was a 12 percent drop in alcohol-related car crashes from 25 years ago to what had happened two years ago. Unfortunately, numbers continued to add up again by the end of last year.

I hope all these numbers would somewhat horrify all readers. A person dies in less than 30 minutes due to drunk-driving. I hope all will be more cautious of these increasing numbers.