The Consequences of Impaired Driving

December 25, 2015

Alcohol: 

How a Habit Fuels the Death of Thousands

Alcoholism in itself is a rather large problem, but I'd like to look further into how the government is combating the amount of drunk drivers that take to  the streets. MADD estimates that there are between 1,250 and 1,500 crashes related to impairment in Canada every year resulting in 3.4 and 4.1 crashes per day. Majority of these incidents are the cause of people especially of younger generations getting is crashes while driving drunk. The younger generations are the future of our nation and as more die the government has barely put in laws to prevent and stop these people especially younger from being killed.. 

In the picture to the right we see your average 

working class man with his hands restrained by

what appears to be the packaging for what 

would be a 6 pack of beer. I believe that the 

packaging is symbolic of a pair of handcuffs

which i believe MADD is attempting to prove

the point that even though drinking seems

to be no big deal, you can still end up in jail

because of actions done while drunk. Although

that seems scary that something as what some 

people believe is no big deal, some places

 especially in Ontario do not make that threat

scary enough for a lack of better words. In Ontario a person caught driving with a BAC of 0.05 and 0.08 will recieve a 3 day roadside license suspension and have to pay a fine of 180 dollars. All I'm saying is that as a 16 year old student in Ontario the 3 day suspension and fine does not seem like an appropriate penalty. Many people drive drunk because the fine isn't equivalent to the importance of the crime, so people are not overly scared of what happens when they get caught.

In China a person caught drunk driving with a

BAC over 0.02 gets a 6 month suspension and a 

1000 to 2000 dollar fine and when caught with 

over 0.08 BAC they receive up to 3 years of 

imprisonment. The results are that in 

comparison to Canada there is an immense 

decrease in the amount of drunk driving incidents. In the picture to the right we see beer car which someone has damaged, yet we also see a picture of an SUV on the side. The damage of the can is symbolic to the damages that can occur to a vehicle when someone is drunk driving. The can has been pressed in which relates to the SUV's right side being pressed in. This shows that even if you are a passenger in a drunk drivers car, you can be in the same if not more dangerous position than the person driving. This is extremely important because it is not as though the passenger gets fined as well when caught which is where the government step in. Now I'm not saying that the government needs to fine everyone in the car, but if they increased the severity of the consequences the government could almost stop drunk driving entirely. Seriously think about it, if you were drunk and thought about driving home, but your friend said something like, don't do it its not safe and if you get caught you'll have your car taken away and be fined 3000 dollars. I do not think that anyone no matter how drunk especially teens hear about a 3000 dollar fine and wouldn't second think drunk driving. 

As you can see from this picture that there is a handicapped parking spot ans on the ground in front of it is the message that every 48 seconds drunk drivers create another handicapped person. This is another reason why the government should increase the penalty on drunk driving for first offences. Part of the problem is that not everyone dies in an accident, now that probably sounds obvious, but it isn't the people who end up dead that suffer, their life is over and done and their family is the ones that mourn the loss. The other outcome is that any person in the car accident may not be dead, yet they are paralyzed unable to no longer do things that they used to love and they suffer watching other live their lives without any complications. All because of what? A person drank to much and weren't worried about what could happen to for starters them getting caught, or the people in the other vehicles on the road.  Now look at this picture here, there is a teenage girl who looks as though she has broken through the glass of her grad picture. Her body laying lifelessly in the shattered glass is symbolic of what could happen if she made it "a night to forget". The text in the image implies that this girl had gone out and celebrated her graduation, but has ended up the victim of a drunk driving incident. I believe the point of this advertisement is to make kids especially teens aware of what could happen by being irresponsible and drunk driving. This once again would have been prevented if the girl was scared of the consequences that she may lose her licenses and odds are if she lived at home she would most likely have enough respect or fear of her parents to not go out and get a 3000 dollar fine in the best scenario and end up dead at worse case scenario. As you can see if the government began to crack down harder on drunk driving by doing even as little as setting up more ride programs during holidays or raising the fines and intensifying the consequences that can come from being caught drunk driving.