Niedrich: Friends don't let friends drive drunk
By: Anastasia Niedrich
Issue date: 1/7/08 Section: Opinion
While these statistics are promising, thousands of lives are still lost every year, and the Highway Patrol alone can't stop drunk driving.
Some states and municipalities have implemented laws that require repeated DUI offenders to install Breathalyzer ignition locks in their cars. If the driver's BAC is too high, the car ignition will lock. The driver can try to pass the test again once each hour until he or she is sober enough to pass the test and drive.
One thousand dollars per device sounds expensive until you consider the high number of DUI-related crashes, injuries and deaths each year and the resulting costs. Such incidents kill someone every 31 minutes and injure someone else every two minutes. Additionally, each year, alcohol-related crashes in the United States cost about $51 billion. For these reasons, I think it would be worth our government's while to require these devices to be retrofitted in all cars on the road. Even with almost 250,000,000 cars on U.S. roads today, a program mandating the installation of a Breathalyzer ignition lock in every car would pay for itself in just four years, and save lives.
So what can you do to help for now? One of the best things you can do is to educate yourself about drunk driving so you can spread the word to others. Another thing you can do is take your friends' or family members' keys and prevent them from driving after they've been drinking. This may sound hard to do, but it's not. Most people, when approached and advised not to drive because they seem too impaired, will hand you their keys willingly. For others, a good trick is to put their keys in a safe hiding place, like their freezer. When your friend wakes up in the morning or after he or she sobers up, you can tell him or her where the keys are hidden.
Working together, knowing our limits -- and not testing them when we're unsure -- and preventing others from acting foolishly by driving under the influence, we can save many lives each year. As the slogan says and as we should do, "Friends don't let friends drive drunk."
letters@chronicle.utah.edu
Some states and municipalities have implemented laws that require repeated DUI offenders to install Breathalyzer ignition locks in their cars. If the driver's BAC is too high, the car ignition will lock. The driver can try to pass the test again once each hour until he or she is sober enough to pass the test and drive.
One thousand dollars per device sounds expensive until you consider the high number of DUI-related crashes, injuries and deaths each year and the resulting costs. Such incidents kill someone every 31 minutes and injure someone else every two minutes. Additionally, each year, alcohol-related crashes in the United States cost about $51 billion. For these reasons, I think it would be worth our government's while to require these devices to be retrofitted in all cars on the road. Even with almost 250,000,000 cars on U.S. roads today, a program mandating the installation of a Breathalyzer ignition lock in every car would pay for itself in just four years, and save lives.
So what can you do to help for now? One of the best things you can do is to educate yourself about drunk driving so you can spread the word to others. Another thing you can do is take your friends' or family members' keys and prevent them from driving after they've been drinking. This may sound hard to do, but it's not. Most people, when approached and advised not to drive because they seem too impaired, will hand you their keys willingly. For others, a good trick is to put their keys in a safe hiding place, like their freezer. When your friend wakes up in the morning or after he or she sobers up, you can tell him or her where the keys are hidden.
Working together, knowing our limits -- and not testing them when we're unsure -- and preventing others from acting foolishly by driving under the influence, we can save many lives each year. As the slogan says and as we should do, "Friends don't let friends drive drunk."
letters@chronicle.utah.edu
Viewing Comments 1 - 3 of 5
Jay
posted 1/07/08 @ 10:20 PM MST
while we are dictating what people can and cannot do, why don't we just put something in the water to sterilize everyone until they can prove their they have the financial and mental capacity to raise children? Utah would probably be in a much happier and better place if that were policy. (Continued…)
The ref
posted 1/08/08 @ 1:10 PM MST
Alright! Alright there! Break it up, Jay! Look at me Dikant, lift your head up, boy... Ok! Ok! This fight's over!
Carole
posted 1/09/08 @ 12:36 PM MST
I can't help but wonder if the unexpectedly high levels of DUI/DWI in Utah has to do with the education we give our children. As someone who grew up outside of the state, I have been very disappointed by the level of education in high school as far as alcohol safety. (Continued…)
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