TEENAGE DRINKING AND DRIVING
By OSAblogger on Sep 7, 2009 in Teen Guidelines
- Image via Wikipedia
The tragic statistics are in and the fact remains that car accidents are the leading cause of death of teenagers. This is part of the statistic because there are still some who have lost limbs, have become in a vegetative state as a result of these accidents. Of the accidents, over 50% of them were alcohol-related. “In 2007, 31% of the reported vehicular accidents involved adolescents between the age of 15 to 20 with a blood alcohol level of 0.1 or higher and 26% had 0.08 or higher.
Many formalities have been taken to try to prevent these statistics from becoming worse. Councils have been developed, educators, counselors, parents, physicians are all attempting to bring these numbers down. Some parents and schools short of having to follow the teens and monitor them every minute have taken to using a breathalyzer usage to determine either before an event takes place or if the teens have participated in underage drinking and then suffer the consequences.
It has become a public outcry when you view the news and a car full of teens have died in a deadly motor vehicle accident due to drunk driving. Preventative measures are constantly being developed to understand the concept of driving while drunk. Not only for youth but for adults as well. We definitely have to try to work on improving our State by State policies and Federal laws to prevent underage drinking.
It is even more appalling when statics cry out “In a single year, 522 children UNDER the age of 14, were arrested for driving while intoxicated”.
If we evaluate the reasoning for this excessive numbers in teenage drinking and driving incidents, we see a number of issues brought to the surface. We know that we could never be told anything when we were teens, we knew it all – - well that fact has not changed. The fact that teens have the mistaken idea that they are free from harm or untouchable is a seriously prevalent factor. Peers feel that the drinking incidents at the time are funny, and encourage other people to drive. Even amongst adults, the feeling of “I can drive” or “I’m not bad” persists in teens when they get behind the wheel to drive. We know the worst effect is the peer pressure and it seems all sense of reason goes out the door when you are surrounded by your “friends” who think you should all hop in the car and go racing down the street while intoxicated.
Even the person who is doing the pressuring at the time while they also are intoxicated doesn’t even think about the repercussions of drinking and driving. Neither driver nor others around while under the influence of alcohol are making good judgmental decisions.
Many states are lowering the alcohol level in the blood stream, but before they even get to that state and are pulled over, hopefully before an accident is caused, many parents, schools and teen clubs are using alcohawk breathalyzers to check on the youths. Sometimes the sheer intimidating factor of being tested causes them to not want to “get in trouble” or drink. Some laws are making the places where the beverages were sold to underage teens liable for their accidents. Utilizing all these preventative measures has caused driving drunk not to be so attractive and hopefully will preserve the lives of our youth.
Related articles by Zemanta
- Man charged in fatal party bus crash (seattlepi.com)
- Repeat drunk driver receives life sentence (nationalpost.com)
- The best way to avoid drunk driving – Take a nap!! (roadsafety.co.za)
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_b.png?x-id=f614b0b0-95bb-4ee9-bff5-065c38b70700)
Written by: OSAblogger / Bill Wardell - Please Read Our Latest OSA eZine Edition
Other Places You Can Find Me…
Digg - LinkedIn - OSA Community - Facebook - StumbleUpon - MyBlogLog
If you're a concerned parent, you may want to subscribe to the: OSA~RSS while your here, please JOIN our: OSA Forum... also Follow Me On Twitter Thanks for visiting!
OSA Related Posts -
Teen Girls' Stories of Sex Trafficking in U.S. photo credit: Steve Weaver Feb. 9, 2006 â Fifteen-year-old "Debbie" is the middle child in a close-knit Air Force family from suburban Phoenix, and a straight-A student -- the last person most of us would expect to be forced into the seamy world of sex trafficking. But Debbie, which...... -
Top 10 Dangerous Drugs Teens Commonly Abuse Drug abuse is one of the most widespread problems facing teens today. Due to peer pressure and a general feeling of invulnerability common amongst teens, as well as a natural inability to really comprehend the long term consequences of their actions that stems from brains that aren't yet fully developed,...... -
Top Ten Tips to Keep Teens Safe on Social Networks If you have a teen these days, you have a teen with social network accounts. And, if you have a teen with social network accounts, you have a teen who needs to understand the gravity of the decisions they make where their online persona's are concerned. The Slogan what happens...... -
Staying Safe: Warning About Teens and Cell Phone Cameras Deanie Wimmer Reporting May 14th, 2007 @ 9:13pm Something many Utah teens consider fun, could be a felony. And increasingly, kids don't make the distinction until it's too late. We have some horror stories that may help your teens Stay Safe. The state's chief of law enforcement says this is...... - Kids, Teens and Virtual Worlds SEPTEMBER 25, 2007 It's a virtual, virtual world after all. The Walt Disney Company's $350 million purchase of Club Penguin signals a new focus of attention for marketers and media companies targeting kids and teens online. Virtual worlds are becoming more frequent destinations as the percentage of children and teens......
OSA Related Websites -
Who's To Blame For The Binge Drinking Culture? This post on binge drinking was originally written and published on 24/02/2008 on my old site, 'The God Is You', and may conflict with my current philosophy. I WAS LISTENING to the Jeremy Vine show on Radio 2 on Thursday - a show I both love AND hate. I...... -
Before You Take Another Sip, Learn How Alcohol Destroys the Body Alcohol not only harms your liver causing you to have sclerosis of the liver and causes you to have ulcers (soars on the inside of your stomach) it also causes cancer. Alcohol is a colorless, volatile, intoxicating flammable liquid, obtained commercially by distilling wine or other fermented liquors and...... -
Fun Fact: Drink Before You Do Something Stupid I just thought this would be an interesting read for your Friday. Nice and light-hearted to ease you into the relaxing (hopefully) weekend. Have you ever seen the show “Jackass” or one of the other similar shows? If not, the idea is simple: You watch guys do stupid things to...... -
Michael Phelps Boozed Before Car Crash /caption] Disgraced swimmer, Michael Phelps, winner of 14 Olympic gold medals, has admitted to guzzling a beer a little more than an hour before his Cadillac Escalade collided with a Honda Accord, which ran a red light last Thursday, Aug. 13, in downtown Baltimore. In 2004, he was fined $250...... - 40 Critical Nights of Winter From Joint Base: From Thanksgiving eve through the end of the New Years Day-weekend there will be 40 nights of which almost half will be followed by a non-working day for most. Many of these nights will involve holiday gatherings, and other opportunities for socializing. This period should be considered......
