Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk
Persuading people not to drive under the influence
Group #2
By:
Emily Hoppenjans
Jon Fox
Kelsey Wheeler
Friends Don’t Let Friends Drive Drunk
On the night of May 14, 1988, Larry Mahoney, a Kentucky factory worker, was intoxicated and drove his black, Toyota pickup truck down the wrong side of I-75, head on into a school bus. The bus, which was returning from a church outing and was loaded with 63 children, burst into flames. Twenty-four children were trapped inside and died in the fire, screaming for their mothers. Three of the four adults on board perished with them. Among the children who escaped, 12 suffered terrible burns. Driving under the influence impairs your judgment, kills thousands of people every day, and can be easily prevented if something is done to eliminate it.
Scientists classify alcohol as a "depressant”, or a type of drug that dulls the efficiency of the central nervous system. The consumption of alcohol in large quantities can cause people to slur their words, move or walk clumsily and make impulsive or misguided decisions about what they should say or do. When intoxicated, a person no longer has good judgment. People often use alcohol to “relax” or “unwind”. Perhaps for this reason, liquor is one of the most popular beverages in the United States. In 1995, per capita consumption of alcoholic drinks averaged 36 gallons annually, making alcohol more popular than either milk (25 gallons) or coffee (21 gallons).
Every year, thousands of people are killed as a result of drunk driving. According to the most recent figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 39% of all traffic-related deaths are related to alcohol. In addition, every 52 minutes on average, someone is killed in a drunk driving crash. And some intoxicated drivers continue to drive more than several times before they are caught. An average drunk driver will drive drunk 87 times before being pulled over. A total of