A car crash in Ljulijana, Slovenia on February 7, 2013. According to Slovenia Tourist Board’s official travel guide, the maximum blood alcohol percentage is .05 percent for drivers as long as their driving is unimpaired.
It Could Happen in a Matter of Seconds
The Truth about Driving Under the Influence
November 21, 2016
“I always order a glass of water with my drink” says 24 year-old Darren Crout as he enjoys his wine.
The pain. That’s what hits you first. Like hitting a brick wall at full speed your body goes from in-motion to suddenly stopped. Now notice the dancing lights of the other drivers around you, the lights switching between being fuzzy and focused. Shattered glass speckles the ground within 20 feet from the accident. The car crushed like a piece of paper that’s been balled up.
Many people have experienced this pain when all they had to do was avoid getting behind the wheel while drunk.
In the United States you need to have a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) less than 0.08 percent if you are at least 21-years-old. If you are a minor, then the legal BAC limit is less than 0.02 percent.
It is nearly impossible to calculate how many drinks it will take for you to get drunk. According to an article published by dui.drivelaws “There are charts and calculators that can help you estimate how many drinks it would take to reach the legal limit, however these tools do not consider all variables that contribute to a BAC score.”
The first time you are arrested for drunk driving there is
- a jail sentence that is to be carried out.
- a fine you have to pay
- your license is suspended for at least three months
- you are “ordered to install an ignition interlock device, IID, on your vehicle.”
IID’s prevent you from getting behind the wheel while impaired by forcing you to blow into a breathalyzer to start the ignition. This has reduced the rate of repeated drunk driving by 67 percent in 2011, according to an article published by Intoxalock.
According to Intoxalock, “Every day in America, another 28 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes.”
“Every two minutes, a person is injured in a drunk- driving crash [and] 10,265 people died in drunk driving crashes-one every 51 minutes- and 290,000 were injured in drunk-driving crashes,” throughout 2014, according to an article published by Madd.
EvCC student, Bryonna Carter-Fry smiles knowing that she will be smart whenever she drinks.
One young man has had his fair share of experiences with drunk drivers. Darren Crout, a 24 year-old Everett citizen loves to go out to drink about 3 to 4 times a month but is always diligent on the road between midnight and 2 a.m.- when most drunk drivers are on the road.
Crout’s advice for those who are planning to drink is “just have a plan before you go to a party, know how much your body can take.”
He also emphasized that with all the rideshare options available, such as Uber, “no one has an excuse to drive drunk anymore.”
For EvCC student Bryonna Carter-Fry, her experience with drunk-drivers is all too real. Her aunt was involved in a drunk driving accident “so [I] know how terrifying it is to hear that your family member has been hit by a drunk driver.”
28 people have felt the pain of being in a drunk-driving accident. All it takes is being smart and planning out transportation before drinking.
As Carter-Fry emphasized, people need to “be smart.. you only have one life and you don’t want to risk that or anyone else’s just for that one shot, or one beer.“