While driving any type of motorized vehicle, it is vital to consider the safety of any and all passengers in the vehicle. Many accidents that happen along the United States roadways are cuased by drivers who neglect simple safety measures and disobey laws that were put into place for a reason. Driving Drunk is one such occurrence that has numerous laws backing its enforcement. Individuals who drink and drive are not only putting themselves and their passengers into immediate danger, but also endangering anyone else on the road with them. According to the United States Department of Transportation, drunk driving incidents cause fatalities roughly every 31 minutes and injuries every two minutes.
If you think those numbers are a bit too high, take a look at another cold hard fact. In 2005 alone over 254,000 people were injured from car accidents with alcohol involved. Nearly 17,000 more individuals were killed by these same types of accidents.
In today's legislature, even more laws are being written to help take drunk drivers off of the road with hefty penalties. One of the most recent of these laws was the Administrative License Revocation Law that allowed for license suspension immediately following a refusal to take a breathalyzer test by a suspect drunk driver on the side of the road. In the event of this situation, the individual would be temporarily taken to the police station and given another chance to submit a breathalyzer test to see if he/she is in fact legally under the influence. If the individual does not comply, other means of extracting this information is possible such as urine tests and blood tests.
In a more aggressive fashion, laws have been passed in the state of California that place businesses partially responsible for damages that any of their customers may have part in from purchasing or consuming alcohol beverages at the establishment. Nonetheless, these laws are having a relatively low impact on the majority of offenders. In the past fifteen years, there have been more repeated violators than ever before.
If anything, these laws and legislative actions are helping to spread the word about the extensive consequences that an individual will go through if they are caught drinking and driving. Not only could your license be suspended, but you could serve jail time, serve hundreds of hours of community service, pay thousands of dollars in court fees, and even begin an unwanted criminal history that future employers can look up at any time.
Drivers are being urged not to drink and drive. Statistically it is the leading cause of deaths along the road ways in the United States. Calling a cab, having someone you know pick you up, or sleeping wherever you were drinking are all not only smart decisions, but could prove extremely less costly in the end.
Drunk driving not only kills, it can change your life forever. Just take a moment and think of quick your life can change with one stupid decision to drink and take the wheel. If you don't think you can drive responsibily, hand over the keys or take the taxi.
Effects Of Drunk Driving
When it comes to driving any type of vehicle, we should always consider the interest and safety of our passengers. Accidents that happen on the roads were generally caused by drivers who neglects on following safety measures, one of which is drunk driving which endangers the not only the lives of the drivers but their passengers and the pedestrians as well. According to the United States Department of Transportation, drunk-driving causes fatal accident which happens every 31 minutes and a road injury every two minutes. In 2005 alone, 254,000 people were injured and 16,919 poor victims died in alcohol-related vehicle mishaps as reported by the police units. In addition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation roughly estimates that above 1.4 million incidents of alcohol and narcotics-related arrests were made by the proper authority. These cover the at least one for every 139 licensed drivers in the U.S. Therefore, alcohol intake is definitely not advisable when planning to handle the wheels.
In recent developments, the administrative license revocation laws were enacted by the government to allow an on-the-spot driver's license suspension if the driver was proven to exceed the allowed limit of blood alcohol content (BAC) or if he refuses to take the BAC test. These laws also lessen the legal limit of BAC to 0.08, hence, reducing the occurrence of alcohol-related accidents at night time by an estimated 11% according to some researches. Other helpful laws such as the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act or the Federal Highway Funding Bill of 2005 were signed by the president to provide incentives for states that will ratify laws which apprehends the three types of drunk drivers. These include repeat violators and drivers found to have over 0.15 BACs. Furthermore, this law holds back some percentage of subsidies to states that refuse to adopt the open container law which rules out on drivers carrying an open alcohol container inside their vehicles. The failure to abide to this law is punishable with license revocation or vehicle impoundment.
In respond to these laws, more and more civilian supported its passage and anti-drunk driving campaigns which aim at drivers below 21 years old and repeat violators have greatly increased. And to make those unruly liquor sellers and servers cautious in vending their products, most of the states including California, presumes added legal liability to the liquor servers for whatever damages or injuries which may be brought about by these undisciplined drunk drivers.
Nonetheless, these laws also boost the morale of the injured victims to file the necessary charges and demand for sufficient monetary damages against the drunk drivers who have caused them their pain and suffering. They even employ the legal assistance of their trusted personal injury lawyers who are experts in handling these certain types of cases to help them increases their chances of acquiring favorable outcomes in their lawsuits. These further instigate awareness to the drivers to refrain from drinking alcoholic beverages before and in the process of driving.
To sum it up, drivers should have to follow these existing laws which covers drunk driving cases not only to prevent being penalized but as a sign of respect and concern for their passengers. In this manner, they may help in minimizing the road accidents and further reducing the probability of people getting harmed.
Both Tom Tessin & Rainer Policarpio are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Tom Tessin has sinced written about articles on various topics from Mileage and Fuel, Education and Finances. Find and more of Charles' work at FINDgascards.. Tom Tessin's top article generates over 673000 views. to your Favourites.
Rainer Policarpio has sinced written about articles on various topics from Drunk Driving, Legal Matters. . Rainer Policarpio's top article generates over 1900 views. to your Favourites.
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