Hazards of Drinking While Driving - Essay Example

Due to the several amounts of accidents experienced by drunk drivers, states have taken several measures to counter the issues and to decrease the problems associated with alcohol drinking and to counter alcohol abuse. This report will focus on the consequences that have occurred due to driving under the influence of alcohol and why these consequences occur. Prevalence According to a report provided by WHO, every one accident out of three are a result of driving under the influence of alcohol in the region of European Union (Tobutt 47).

WHO reported that a total of 17000 accidents have taken place due to driving under the influence of alcohol and the number of males that have experienced death in these accidents were 15000 and only 2000 females have experienced death due to these accidents (Eurocare, 2013). The European Transport Safety council reported during the year of 2003 that out of all the journeys that take place within European Union, two to three percent of the times, the driver of the vehicle drives under the influence of alcohol (Tobutt 45).

The report further stated that the issue is on a rise and the number of drivers driving under alcohol influence is increasing on rapid basis. For example: in the case of Latvia, the number of accident caused due to the issue of drinking and driving stood at 11% of all the road accidents and out of these 11%, 32% accidents were tremendously serious in nature and 39% of these accidents were deadly in nature (Tobutt 46). Loss of life is not only the issue caused due to accidents caused by drunk drivers, property loss is even a major concern of this issue.

During the period of 2003, a loss of total of € 10bn of property loss was experienced as a result of the accidents caused due to driving under the influence of Alcohol (Tobutt 45). During the period of 2007, W.H.O reported that number of accidents taking place due to drinking and driving issue has declined substantially from 34 persons out of a total population of 100,000 as witnessed during the period of 1980 to 20 persons as witnessed during the period of 2004 (Tobutt 42). Loss of Skills Required for Driving According to a review of total of 109 studies conducted by Moskowitz during the period of 2000, people start losing certain amount of skills required for driving as their blood alcohol level increases from zero (Moskowitz 5).

During the period of 2002, Solomon reported that skills that are considered essential for driving start experiencing impairment as soon as an individual consumes alcohol (Solomon 2). One of the skills that an individual looses as a result of alcohol consumption is skill of being able to track movements. When an individual is under the influence of only 0.3g/l to 0.5g/l of alcohol, he experiences difficulty in moving his eyes in a voluntary manner and thus experiences the inability to constantly track movement of targets (Moskowitz 10).

The skill of being able to track moving objects is very essential in driving as drivers are required to track moving objects such as other motor vehicles in order to drive in compliance with the motor vehicles moving ahead and on the back side of the driver’s vehicle. When a driver is under alcohol influence, the alcohol in his system relaxes the muscle that is used to maintain control of the lens of an individual’s eyes. Another issue with those who drink and drive is that they concentrate on one object