Jerry Delgado, Oswaldo Valentin, and Wendy Perez-Govea
Class of 2022
Dear Future and Current Drivers,
Did you know that “Every day, almost 30 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes—that’s one person every 48 minutes in 2017”(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). Clearly, based on this statistic, we embody the fact that multiple people die because of drunk driving and those people can be family members or people we knew. We chose the topic Drunk Driving in order to have more people know about this topic and understand that lots of people are being affected and this topic isn´t just nonsense. Most importantly we chose to write to those who have a driver’s license or are looking forward to earning one, to understand that driving is a huge responsibility and if it’s taken for granted people can get hurt.
The issue today is that everyone is being affected by alcohol especially when people are drunk and out driving and we must transpose the issue. We know that there are multiple reasons why the issue is caused for example being an alcoholic meaning having the inability to control drinking emotionally and physically. Alcohol is also used because it can be a way for people to reduce stress caused by a traumatic event. Also, sometimes users have a family history of alcoholic behavior caused from a mental health disorder, or lack of family supervision at parties. In the website ‘National Safety Council’, Lisa Robinson (writes blogs about safety when driving) talks about how injuries are caused because of drunk driving. It states, “The misuse or abuse of alcohol or other substances greatly increases the chance of injuries in the workplace and beyond.”(Robinson). What this is stating is that it is illegitimate to drive under the influence of alcohol according to the law and for a teenager to drink in general meaning that it is insubordinate to be under the influence of alcohol since it has a high chance of getting in a car accident since alcohol interferes with the drivers concentration, reaction time, vision, and slows their breathing down (Delphi Behavioral Health Group). This will harm not only the people in the vehicle driving but also the people who are innocent and around them during the mishap. This is why we people shouldn’t drive under the influence of alcohol because they won’t get anything good out of the situation and they are risking their lives and others. People should think about ways to stay safe for example if they are at a party ways to get home without having to drive in order to keep others and themselves safe instead of endangering their lives. In the, ‘Development and Advising in Traffic Safety’, found that a lot of teenagers will be under the influence of alcohol when they are driving. The DATS states, “In more recent years, several studies have shown that more than a third of adults and half of teenagers admit they have driven drunk.”(Development and Advising in Traffic Safety). The fact that teenagers admit that they are under the influence of drinking and driving it shows that parents need to be more responsible and keeping track of what their child is doing. Besides this parents should interact with their teen and tell them why is not allowed to be drinking and driving since parents wouldn’t want to lose their children. Specially in parties they should make sure that they have a way to get home or parents should pick up their kids. In order for teenagers to not get hurt it’s impactful and total nonsense to lose you kid just because they were drinking and driving when their parents should have taught them to prevent these actions. Parents should make sure that they go through ground rules with their kids before letting them drive because no parent wants to lose their children at such an early age for a mistake that could have been prevented.
The past tactics of social change that have been used to make change on drinking and driving that influenced our team for this project were education, public art, and propaganda. First, MADD found different statistics based on multiple incidents of drunk driving everyday meaning lots of people are affected from this issue. Mothers Against Drunk Driving website says,” 300,000 INCIDENTS A DAY, 10,876 DEATHS A YEAR, 290,000 INJURIES PER YEAR” (MADD). This can show people that it isn’t a small problem and accidents can happen to anyone. Multiple people are affected by this and it shows that we need to speak up about it with the current generation and the future generations to see if we can make a change and have these statistics drop.
Another, past tactic that has been used before is billboards and public art.
(https://www.lifesafer.com/blog/emojis-fight-drunk-driving). The billboard is communicating the fact that people shouldn’t be drinking and driving at all and subdue these acts. It should stop because we are losing lots of lives and using billboard is a way for people to see because they are big and it promotes to safely drive.
Furthermore, teenagers need to hear about these issues in order to make a drop impact in the teenage community because it has the highest percentage of accidents of drunk driving. Development and Advising in Traffic Safety suggests, “This problem is especially important among young people and worsens on weekend nights” (DATS). Clearly we need to show teenagers statistic and ways for them to learn how to stay safe when driving. We need to show them that it isn’t a good idea to drink in parties at a young age and to drive either under alcohol influence. This is why we chose to make flyers to post around our highschool since some students may be getting ready to learn to drive or are currently driving. We wouldn’t want our classmates to get hurt over an accident that could have been prevented. Finally, we will use propaganda using an instagram account to show the community and others that this is a serious issue and people are getting affected by it. This source claims, “ Alcohol causes very obvious alterations in behavior, as it affects almost all the physical skills we need for safe driving.” (DATS). In an account we can have a bigger audience meaning more people will be engaged and will see the effects on alcoholism and drunk driving. This can help some people chose to get help and also have them be more responsible with their choices.
Our plan is to create posters and put them up around our school in order for the high schoolers who are getting prepared to learn how to drive or for those who already know to make sure they don’t drive under the influence of alcohol. Along with posters we will also have an instagram account and will be posting educational posts with the hashtags #beeresponsible #dontdrinkanddrive. Besides this we will add the MADD donating link and go around telling the teachers or students to donate in order to help victims of driving accidents.
In conclusion, to raise awareness about not drinking and driving we will educate people in order for them to be more responsible about their choices and actions. If you would like to support our proposal, follow us on instagram @n0_drunk_driving_ and follow the hashtags #beeresponsible #dontdrinkanddrive #drive responsibly. Also, go donate to www.madd.org/ which is an association that works with making money in order to help people who got injured in accidents or to help people get treated for alcoholism.
Please comment and be our Ally,
Wendy Perez-Govea
Oswaldo Valentin
Jerry Delgado
Annotated Bibliography
Alonso, Francisco, et al. “Driving under the Influence of Alcohol: Frequency, Reasons, Perceived Risk and Punishment.” Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy, BioMed Central, 12 Mar. 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4359384/.
This website is about how to prevent substance abuse. This is a credible source because multiple people help organize it and create it so there’s a lot of people’s ideas and thoughts put into it. A strength about the source is that it has multiple perspectives. Something negative about the source is that it provides a lot of information and some people may not read all of it.
“Delphi Behavioral Health Group | National Addiction Treatment Network.” Delphi Behavioral Health Group | National Addiction Treatment Network, 2018, delphihealthgroup.com/.
Delphi Behavioral Health Group is a network that helps drug and alcohol addicts works towards getting addiction recovery or provide readers with information about the issue. This is a credible source to look at because they are working towards helping people not harming them and they have been featured in msn, nbc news, usa-today, huffpost, healthline, and medical-daily. A strength is that they are a known website and the page is easy to access so more people would look at it. A weakness about this source is the impediment to help people is that they might not want help and the Health Group only helps those who agree with getting rehab.
Jean.yoder.ctr@dot.gov. “Drunk Driving.” NHTSA, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 15 Apr. 2019, www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drunk-driving.
This Website is about how to eliminate risky behaviors. This is a credible source to look at because it talks about the issue and how to take action. A strength about the source is that it helps with road safety and has a hotline but a weakness is that it provides a lot of information that some people might not read it all.
Lisa Robinson. ¨Our driving concern¨ https://txdrivingconcern.org/the-problem-of-impaired-driving-2/
This website is about statistics and resources for people who drink and drive. This source is credible because people who drink can get help from the publisher herself (Lisa Robinson) in a live chat, and the website has different resources like safety training, tip sheets and the issues which different types of driving. A strength about this source is that it has different resources, many other sources just have a section where people might get therapy and revert ¨back to a normal state¨.
“Mothers Against Drunk Driving.” MADD, www.madd.org/.
This website is about a group of mothers who decided to come together and show the world that drunk driving is a serious issue. This is a credible source to look at because it has multiple ways to help people like educating the community, donations, finding ways to help with alcoholism, and more. A strength about the source is that multiple people are aware about the website and people actually are actually donating and they have a hotline that can help people find ways to get treated for alcoholism for example and ways to get involved in the movement.
Staff, Editorial. “Emojis to Fight Drunk Driving – South Carolina’s Newest Weapon.” LifeSafer Ignition Interlock, LifeSafer Ignition Interlock, 24 Aug. 2016, www.lifesafer.com/blog/emojis-fight-drunk-driving/.
This is a credible source because the billboards are a form of propaganda and public art and performance, anyone is able to see this when they are driving. If no one pays attention to these ads it will be immutable to get rid of drunk driving or alcohol addiction.
Dear Wendy :
I am impressed by your post “Don’t Drink and Drive,” because I completely agree with your theory that teenagers need to be educated in order to decrease the amount of drink driving cases and the amount of deaths caused by them. It is truly devastating to a family for a family to lose a teenager to such a preventable cause.
One sentence you wrote that stands out for me is: “ In order for teenagers to not get hurt it’s impactful and total nonsense to lose you kid just because they were drinking and driving when their parents should have taught them to prevent these actions. Parents should make sure that they go through ground rules with their kids before letting them drive because no parent wants to lose their children at such an early age for a mistake that could have been prevented.” I think this is very true because if parents educated their children and teenagers about such important issues, it could greatly impact the rest of their lives.
Another sentence that I agreed with was: “ People should think about ways to stay safe for example if they are at a party ways to get home without having to drive in order to keep others and themselves safe instead of endangering their lives.” This stood out for me because I agree that there are many ways for people to not drink and drive, many solutions that can be found. No one should ever have to resort to a solution where they are endangering their life and someone else’s life.
Your post reminds me of something that happened to me. One time I read a very helpful article providing tips for both parents and teen on way to avoid drinking and driving at all costs. This is an example of one of the steps being taken to decrease the number of teens killed due to drinking and driving.
Thanks for your writing. I look forward to seeing what you write next because there are many other aspects of drinking and driving that have to be addressed in order to make changes in the death rates caused by it. I appreciated this post and actually have a blog of my own dedicated to drinking and driving. Here’s the link to my blog, feel free to check it out for more information about drunk driving: https://fightingdrunkdriving.wordpress.com/
“Furthermore, teenagers need to hear about these issues in order to make a drop impact in the teenage community because it has the highest percentage of accidents of drunk driving”
I completely agree with this statement & I think if more teenagers are aware of the effects and repercussions that drinking driving entails, that would be a helpful tool in preventing future incidents. Growing up, as children we’re always told, “don’t drink & drive” but seldom are we informed of the why factors. I don’t think any age is too young to start educating youth on the life lasting consequences that drinking and driving can have on not only the drivers but others as well. By doing our best to make sure that adolescences know & understand the detrimental side effects of drinking and driving we can hopefully contribute to a decrease in this indiscretion that has taken so many lives.
Dear Jerry, Oswaldo, & Wendy,
Thank you so much for taking time out of you day to read our post we appreciate it a lot. We thought we should focus on this topic because it’s important and we can really create a change and have death rates lower. You should follow us on instagram @n0_drunk_driving_ for you to check out the movements we are making to cause a change.
Best- Wendy, Oswaldo, Jerry
Jerry, Oswaldo, & Wendy
I appreciate your post here. You have done thorough research and crafted a nice plan.
It was very insightful of you to notice that education, public art, and propaganda were key factors in combating drunk driving. I think you have a great plan for educating high schoolers, as many of them will be learning to drive soon and start drinking alcohol in the coming years.
Keep thinking about how you want to educate your peers. Of course, the first thing you want to do is dissuade teenage drinking as much as possible. However, we know teenagers will drink–so what should their plan be? Rideshare apps? A sober friend? What do they do if they have a friend who is considering drinking and driving? Just some things to consider…
Keep up the good work!
Thank You so much for taking time out of your day to read our post. Besides educating high schoolers we also did a parent meeting and explained our topic and our concern in letting their teenagers drink and also drive and a lot of parents were fully engaged. We are willing to consider your opinion thank you so much again for looking over our work. It would be great if you followed us on instagram @n0_drunk_driving_ that way you can see everything we have done so far and support us.
Best- Wendy, Oswaldo, Jerry
I think this is a great topic to bring awareness to Drinking and Driving. I agree and think that having signs for students around schools is a great way to do this. I especially like and think that it is great that you went beyond just posting on the topic. By you creating a hashtag and providing links to donate shows how proactive and passionate about the topic. I especially found this post important because learning about adolescence and brain development. I have learned that adolescents are more likely to make risk taking decision especially when they are around their peers. By having these types of advertising and post on social media is beneficial and is a great way to be proactive.