Drinking and Driving

One of my biggest problems with this world is people who drink and drive. You should still have enough brain cells to know that it’s not a good thing to drive if you can’t even walk straight. Innocent people get severely injured or even killed because of all the people who drive under the influence. It is a proven fact that you are more likely to get in a car accident if you are under the influence of alcohol or drugs. But the worst thing about that is that it generally takes more than one car to get into an accident. And it’s the people in the car that isn’t occupied with a drunk driver who end up suffering the most. And paying for someone else’s bad actions and poor judgement.

Obviously campaigns against drunk driving such as MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) aren’t exactly having the intended effect on people. There are way too many cases of car accidents that occur everyday. And the majority of those are caused by drunk driving. Innocent people are getting killed. Something needs to be done about that.

People need to realize that even one drink is enough to impair your judgement. They also need to realize that they aren’t special. They are not invincible, and are just as capable as the next person to get into an accident. All too often do people think, that won’t happen to me. I’m a great driver. A few drinks won’t change that. Well guess what? That’s not true. Choosing to drink and drive is not just a personal choice. It affects thousands more people than you would ever imagine.

Drunk driving has affected me and I have never once had an alcoholic beverage, or even been hit by a drunk driver for that matter. Someone very close to me was hit by a drunk driver, and was severely injured and had to be rushed to the hospital in a helicopter. Four years later, he appears to be fine, other than the several scars from surgeries. But he will never be fine. And everyone who is close to him and knows him well will never be fine either. Nobody likes to see someone they care about get hurt. Especially when they know that it could have been easily prevented. I will forever hate Eric W. for his poor decisions that affected many more people than he could ever wrap his head around. Some could say that it wasn’t his fault. Sure, he may feel horrible about it, and maybe he’ll be less likely to ever drive under the influence again. But everyone is in control of their own actions, and is responsible for making their own decisions. Eric made a bad decision that almost cost an innocent person his life. And that is no one’s fault but Eric’s.

It’s my goal in life to try to stop all the Erics out there. But I can’t do it alone.