Why you shouldn't drink and drive - Essay Example

Why you should not drink and drive A drink that has alcohol levels of between 3% and 40% is an alcoholic beverage and falls into three categories of spirits, beers, and wines. Moderate drinking entails ensuring the concentration of alcohol in a person’s blood below 0.08g.dL. Driving entails the controlled movement and operation of a vehicle like a car, truck, lorry, bus, or carriage. However, drinking affects the ability of a person to control machinery including vehicles, hence the need to avoid drinking when one is designated to drive.

Didderent reasons exist for refraining from drinking and drivving, which forms the basis of this study. One reason for not drinking and driving is that it can cause accidents that may in return cause deaths and injuries that may be either permanent or temporary depending on the brutality of the accident. Deaths lead to loss of loved ones that leave gaps in the family. If the deceased person was the breadwinner in the family, the people left behind have problems on providing their needs. In case of a parent loss if the children left behind are young, they will have hardships living without the support of their parents and this may lead to mental imbalance that may lead to health problems to the affected.

Injuries can lead to disabilities, which make the affected more dependent on the other members of the family that can increase family expenses. Overbey states this as, “to reduce drunk driving and the deaths and injuries that it causes” (Overbey, 55), showing the need to avoid drunk driving owing to the consequences to self, family, friends, government, and the society. The second reason why a person should not drink and drive is to avoid penalties imposed on drunk drivers. One will be prosecuted for felony if having prior convictions even if no accidents occurred.

In Florida, one can be charged with a felony if an accident is caused and particularly if someone is injured. If the accident results to death, one can be charged with manslaughter or vehicle homicide, which can lead to tears or decades imprisonment. Depending on the state, one can be subject to the following penalties or an offense resulting from drunk driving: a fine up to several thousand dollars, possible jail term, and probation, revocation of the drivers’ license or temporary impounding of the vehicle.

All this can be avoided by not drinking and driving. Mendralla and Janet (45) give advice to a person requested to drive while drunk to respond as “I do not want to risk losing my license” (Mendralla and Janet, 45), showing that drunk driving can lead to loss of license and other legal repercussions to the offender. Lastly, drunk driving would lead to psychological stress and mental problems to a person who from his inability to make the correct judgment while drunk driving hits and kills an innocent person on the road.

Artzer states that “you would never be able to live down an experience like that; you would never recover mentally to become a successful person in life” (Artzer, 36). Owing to the effect of alcohol on judgment, affects vital motor skills of navigating the vehicle at required precision and speed and disfigures depth perception of the driver. This may in evidently result in causing accidents that may lead to accidently taking a person’s life that was unfortunate to be at hit by your vehicle while you are drunk driving.

The loss of innocent life owing to one’s drunkenness will be a lasting mental problem that will affect you, as a drunken driver in life affect the ability to achieve your dreams and aspirations. In conclusion, drunk driving causes a lot of legal and personal effects to the driver and relations including family, friends, and society hence the need to avoid driving while drunk. Some of the effects of drunk driving include loss of life and life changing injuries that will negatively affect other people, brushing with the law that may lead to imprisonment, withdrawal of licenses among other repercussions, and mental problems arising from the guilt of taking an innocent life owing to your drunk driving.

Therefore, avoid drunk driving and stay safe.Work CitedArtzer, Eric. Reach for the Sky: How to Get What You Want in Life. Bloomington: Author House, 2009. Print. Mendralla, Valerie, and Janet Grosshandler. Drinking and Driving, Now What? New York: Rosen Pub, 2012. Print.Overbey, Chris. Drinking and Driving War in America. Lulu.com, Jan1, 2006. Print.