Adolescent Drinking and Driving Research
According to the statistics, the leading cause of death among teenagers in the United States is , with one in three deaths caused by impaired driving (Hafner et al.). Therefore, because of such high rates of fatal accidents, there is a vital need to find a way to decrease the number of car crashes involving drunk teenagers. In this proposal, I would like to reach out to the local school principal with an offer to conduct a unique program that should influence teenagers regarding the topic of adolescent driving under the influence (DUI).
Such devastating statistics about that involve drunk teenagers urges to serious actions for prevention of adolescents from sitting behind the wheel while under the influence. In 2016, 2,433 Americans died from getting into a car accident in 2016; among them, a quarter of the fatal incidents occurred because of driving under the influence (Hafner, et al.). A school is a place where teenagers spend most of their time during the weekdays, where it is easy to influence them. I encourage the principle to join the initiative with a goal to prevent teenage DUI as much as possible because it is an important issue that has to be addressed. With creative and innovative methods, it is possible to influence the high schoolers and show them the correct models of behavior.
Various methods are used for the prevention of ; they vary from to psychological influence. In the article by Perri Klass, it is stated that adopting more restriction policies for DUI overall is generally associated with less fatal incidents (Klass). Undeniably, that restrictive policies must exist, and violating them must have an according punishment; however, it is not that simple.
Such policies must be individual to not only each state but also every town due to their specific characteristic: like lengthy highways, amount of vehicles, etc. Adding a single policy to the regulation would not change the overall situation drastically; it may decrease a small percentage of the accidents, and thus, will not show a significant result in the general picture. Klass said, Its really the collection of them all that seems to be effective. Therefore, creating more restriction policies is individual to every town and would not make a significant impact on the problem as a whole.
One more proposed solution to the problem of teenage drinking and driving is stricter parent control. Yale Universitys article states that strong parenting can act as a great form of prevention and may be able to eliminate the problem at its beginning (Belli). The writer says that protective parenthood and can be useful even after a few years when children leave for college. No doubt, that good parenting, in most cases, has a good influence on children, but in the position of total control, it can bring more harm than good behavior.
One more reason for its ineffectiveness is each parent has his or her own methods of upbringing, which has a significant influence too. Therefore, such a way of fighting teenage drunk driving has many nuances; thus, we cannot talk about its universal effectiveness for all teenagers.
