After a long with your day with the family you’re driving in the night, exhausted and wanting to desperately get to your home. You’re minding your own business as you pass a green light, then a car who’s speeding and swerving takes the red light and rams into your car at high speeds. Your daughter, who’s only seven, is instantly killed as well as your wife. The other driver is a drunk teenager and is driving home from a party. The teenager walks away from the accident while you mourn the loss of your family.
Underage drinking has become a major problem in our society and many of these situations happen in reality due to irresponsible behavior from drunk teens. People who participate in underage drinking tend to not think about the consequences they have on their health and the people around them. They’re out having a good time at parties binge drinking and decide that they’re fine to drive, as soon as they step into the car and turn the key, they just put himself and the people in danger. We as a society must think of ways to help lower underage binge drinking and teach teens the consequences of their actions.
Since the rise in the age of the legal age of drinking, it has driven underage drinking to underground parties where teens take it too far and don’t drink in moderation. Statistics have shown that death rates have increased drastically by two hundred percent due to the short and long term effects that arise from underage alcohol consumption. This can also lead to risky sexual behavior which can lead to sexual transmitted diseases since they don’t use protection or have multiple partners. Teens under the influence tend to not make wise decisions since alcohol consumption causes many problems in the brain.
Alcohol is also a major factor in deadly car accidents, statistics show that one third of drivers who died in a car crash had a blood level over the legal limit. If teens knew how deadly their decisions can be if they decide not to watch their alcohol consumption and how they affect the families who lose someone due to a drunk driving accident. There has been an increase in deaths due to underage binge drinking in the past few years, to try and lower those rates, we must educate teenagers of alcohol consumptions.
Moreover, author Dr. Nicholas Kardaras He also states that “people fault the changing laws that raised the legal drinking age for leading to what some think has been an increase in teen binge drinking. ” (Kardaras) However, teen binge drinking has gone down in the recent years, the thing that has stayed the same is extreme binge drinking. Since the increase in legal drinking age about one thousand lives were saved per year in highways fatalities. Location of where you live also have a big role in binge drinking, “rural lifestyles play a contributing factor to whether or not a young person binge drink. Kardaras 2)”
Depending on the people teenagers are friends with can lead them into the binge drinking path. Alcoholism can affect young children as well, parents play a big role in leading their child into the correct path. Children of alcoholics are more likely to become alcoholics themselves rather than children whose parents aren’t alcoholics. Don’t be that parent who drinks with their kid or the parent who allows their child to host parties with alcohol in their home.
To try and prevent teenagers to binge drink, parents must lecture their children on the consequences of their action under the influence and create a safe environment where teens don’t feel the need to go out and drink. Teens go out to parties, clubs, and even in their own homes to drink without moderation. Deadly automobile accidents happen every due to a drunk driver being negligent of his actions and decisions. However, it isn’t the drunk driver that always suffers, most of the time they walk out of that incident with their life while the victims suffer and mourn over the loss of a family member or a loved one.
Even though underage is a major problem in today’s society, being safe by drinking responsibly can save many lives along with understanding that driving under the influence is too much a risk and getting a ride is much safer. Regulation for underage binge drinking is needed because drunk drivers are impaired and can kill many people who get caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Most teens aren’t aware of the mistake they are making by deciding to drive under the influence and must educated to learn from those mistakes and try to prevent these incidents from happening again.
