Only YOU can prevent sober driving!!

According to statistics (http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-driving-statistics.html) in 2006, 2007, and 2008, only 37% of fatal accidents were caused by people under the influence of alcohol. In 26 years, this number has fallen to almost half of the fatal accidents reported a year.

My argument is this; if 37% of driving fatalities are from intoxicated drivers, then this means that 63% of them are caused by sober drivers. Due to these statistics, I propose DASD, Drivers Against Sober Drivers. If 63% of driving fatalities are caused by sober drivers, who is at fault? We can no longer blame alcohol.

What's also interesting about the statistics is that, besides 1988, the number of driving fatalities has remained fairly constant. Yet the number of alcohol-related fatalities has halved.

I think that we need to start insisting that more people drive while intoxicated to prevent the loss of lives that we see out on our roadways.

If we don't institute new laws against sober driving, then statistically speaking, we will continue to see the rise of sober-driving related fatalities.

How do we stop the menace of sober drivers? Do we set up sober checkpoints to ensure that people aren't sober while driving? Should we post police at the exits of AA meetings?

Maybe it falls on the individual? When was the last time you took a friend's keys because they were too sober to drive?

How about just enforcing stronger driving tests?

Maybe that's the key?

It may be a bit "out of the box", but what would happen if we ensured that these 17, 18, and 20 year old kids actually knew how to drive instead of them peeling out in the parking lot of our own campus?

When was the last time you, as an individual, saw a kid flying through the parking lot and didn't say anything to them? Who's responsibility is it?

It's our community; it's our college; it's OUR responsibility to stop these reckless individuals from speeding in our parking lot, or not stopping at the stop signs.

It's either that, or we start punishing all sober drivers for the ignorant behavior of those too irresponsible to understand and appreciate this privilege.

Because that's what it is, a privilege, not a right, to allow these young, barely, adults to operate a motor vehicle.

Disclaimer: I had a great argument prepared, one that would shock quite a bit of people and get people yelling at me. Which, for the sake of this blog, is really what I'm going for. I was really inspired by "Thank You for Smoking", as in that if you can argue a point for something so seemingly absurd, such as smoking cigarettes in the context of the movie especially, then you have certainly reached a level of influence and linguistic skill.

With that in mind, let me also say that before anyone reads what I'm about to write, I lost a very close and beloved friend of mine due to his poor decision to drink and drive. Furthermore, I found out about his death while I was in Iraq. My commander had to take me off of patrols and I was forced to see the chaplain for about two weeks. So please understand that I have nothing but sympathy for those lost due to drinking and driving.