DRIVING WHILE DRUNK
Scott Lambeth
Hodges University

English Comp1
Professor Gomez
April 12, 2011

This is a Problem-Solution paper addressing Driving While Intoxicated. It will discuss the problem of drunk drivers and the damage they cause, and some possible solutions and responses as to how to deal with them and the arguments they may have against people seeking to protect themselves.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
1) Cover Page
2) Thesis statement
3) Table of Contents
4-5) The Problem of Driving While Intoxicated (DWI)
6-7) Solutions for DWI
7-8) Counter Arguments
9-10) conclusion
11-12)References

Even though the number of incidents has fallen over the years, Driving while Drunk remains a serious problem. The loss of lives, injuries, and damage to property are the main issues. But also the court costs and adding more people to an already overcrowded jail system as well as finding them treatment. There is no price that can be put to the loss of lives that occurs due to rampant stupidity. Driving Drunk ruins lives. From the people that die to the families of those left behind. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in 2009 released their statistics, showing that 11,773 people died in alcohol-related crashes. (Sept. 2010, par. 3). Even with a nearly a fifty percent drop in the number of drunk driving accidents since the early 1980’s, the numbers are far too high. Many of the victims in these accidents are innocent drivers, or pedestrians. A common misconception in this country is that people have a right to drive. Driving is a privilege hence the need to be licensed and the term ‘Driving Privileges’. As in having your driving privileges suspended for Driving While Intoxicated (DWI). There is no question that as a citizen you have the right to own property, in this case, a car. That is a right protected by the Constitution. As a citizen, there is no right, no privilege that allows you to use your property to cause injury, damage, and death to innocent people. In most States and Counties there are no longer laws preventing a citizen of legal age from purchasing and consuming alcohol. Though there are laws in every State, covering every county in those States; that defines the conditions for being legally drunk, and legally drunk in public is against the law. What type of person is breaking these laws? According to an article in Contemporary Issues Companion: Drunk Driving; over the past 20 years drunken driving has increased among women, Hispanics and white males ages 21 to 34 (2005, par. 11). The casual drink or social drinker, are rarely the cause of accidents. That falls to the heavy drinker, alcoholics, and repeat offenders. This sub-group of drinkers is responsible for more than half the alcohol accidents reported each year. Underage age drinking only accounts for a small portion of drunk-driving accidents, according to an article by, K. Fusha, the average is 1500 such accidents each year (Sept. 2010. Par. 7). While that is barely over 10% of the national total each year, that is still 1500 dead children and their families left to mourn. Teenagers want to believe they are in control and that they are smart enough and experienced enough to make their own decisions. The hoe we all shared at that age, but time has shown us that we were not ready, and that looking back we made some very bad choices. Most of us are still alive to realize this. Those that lost their lives to bad choices, or had them taken away because of someone else’s bad choices, no longer have that luxury of hindsight. Everyone, from the time they could crawl till the day they die, has and ‘will’ make bad choices. The car they drive, the career they choose, the relationships they enter or leave, the hair cut they wish no one ever saw, or the clothes they wore a decade ago, to the horrible choices in their diets, that they know are bad for their health. But these choices only affect one person, the one making them, and