My personal project is on DUI’s more specifically drinking and driving. Drinking and driving can really make an impact on people’s lives such as peoples relationships with their families and or friends. It is a proven fact that judgment is the first sense to be affected for someone who has been drinking. Therefore, people may feel like there ok to do certain things when in reality there not.  Legally you should not be operating a motor vehicle with a .08% blood alcohol concentration. What people fail to realize is that when they decide to get behind the wheel while drinking they are not just putting their lives at risk, but the lives of people around them. Prior to starting this project I never realized how important it is not to drink and drive. Therefore, now if someone I know is drinking I either won’t get in the car or I make sure that someone else who is not drinking drives.

This project fits under families and relationships because drinking takes a toll on the abuser, loved ones, and people who share the road ways with them. I chose this topic because I have firsthand experience with a loved that had a problem with drinking and driving. Answer me this has you or anyone in your family been emotionally or physically hurt from drinking and driving, Even if you weren’t the one drinking and driving? Well my father used to drink and drive a lot even when I was in the car with him. My father has now learned his lesson but it did not come easy. He has gotten caught two times, his first offence wasn’t as bad as his second, it was literally a slap on the wrist which I feel is the reason that he didn’t learn his lesson When he got caught the second time it was the night of super bowl XLII. The date was February 3, 2008 we went to watch the game at hooters and he was having a few drinks. We received a call a few hours after he dropped my sister and I off at home that my dad had gotten arrested while driving around Hartford. His girlfriend was new to the U.S so she didn’t know her way around.. She was alone so we had to go pick her up because he had to stay the night in jail. Do I blame the cop for arresting him? No he probably saved someone’s life that day. Another time my father had gone missing for about a week, my sister and I went days trying to figure out where he was at calling everyone we knew who was close to him, finally we received a call from one of my dad’s friends  she said that he drove all the way to Philadelphia highly intoxicated. She said she was scared for his life and that she was surprised that he made it so far. She took him to a hospital because he began to look pale and she knew he needed help. They ended up putting him in an institution and that’s why we didn’t hear from him for days. Till this day my father still doesn’t remember how he got there. This affected me badly because I only had bad thoughts going through my head I was thinking things like what if something happened to him? Where is he? And what if he doesn’t come back to CT?  We were the only people calling him day in and day out even his “best friend” didn’t even care what had happened to him or where he was. To this day whenever I am with my father and he is drinking I make sure that he doesn’t drive because I now know the impact that it can have on people. This project will be in the topic of families and relationships (Global Context) because it can really ruin people’s lives with the people that are around them.

I have done lots of research on this topic over the summer. When I did my research most of the info that I found from different websites said the same thing with the offences and how the laws are when you commit them. The laws are now starting to change on your first offence they are trying to make it that you get an ignition interlock if you’re BAC (blood alcohol content) is over 0.08. The sentence will change if your BAC content is 0.08 than when it is 0.16 and even if you were to refuse the test you will get the same sentence as if you were to get a 0.16 BAC. Most of these laws will change by next year and what they will most likely try to do is put a breathalyzer in any vehicle that a person is caught drinking and driving in CT. the state right now is working on changing the laws so that people can notice that it isn’t okay when you drink and drive. Driving under the influence has been widely looked over by many people now the police are starting to crack down on it which is most likely going to start making people use different means of transportation when they are drunk. In CT alone only 24 out of 10,000 people have been arrested due to DUI’s which really is horrible but now I am sure that since they are cracking down even more there will be more arrest than there was this year.

Consequences come with DUI’s If people were to just think about other people’s lives and not only theirs when they are drinking and driving I’m sure that they wouldn’t do it. If people were to think what if someone was endangering my family like they are endangering others families I’m sure that they would stop because they know that they could really ruin a whole other families life with their children,friends,dads,moms even people who dot have those kinds of people around them they are still killing another person. Before I had done my research on this project of DUI I didn’t know how much of an impact that it had our world. Many people have different stories of their DUI experience but I shared mines with you. Another thing that can happen when you have a DUI you can lose your job, if risking people’s lives doesn’t faze you then this should, can you imagine that one day you were drinking and driving the next month you have no money because you lost your job then the next week you are homeless because you had no money to pay the bills on your house. If people were to just think about the consequences of their actions even if they were just driving to the next street over many things can happen in that little bit of time. One day you can be having the time of your life the next day you wake up in jail try and think about the people around you like if they were your family members. I am going to ask u one more question, lets say you get a call that says one of your ; Mom, dad, sister, brother, or any other family members was either hurt or killed by someone who was drinking, wouldn’t you want to punch them  in their face, that’s how I used to feel towards my family members that would drink and drive while I was with them because I know how dangerous it is to drink and drive.

Whenever it is that u know or see anyone that want to get in their car and drive either tell them to get a cab or drive them home because that way we can save people’s lives starting with you. Just think about all of the lives that people have saved when they called a cab after coming out of a bar, now drinking and driving has changed my life in so many ways because there is times that I wonder If I will be able to see the people that I care about especially if they’re the ones doing the crime, no matter what now if your caught drinking and driving it will be harder for you. Now you can lose your job, license, or worst of all some people that you love, I’d rather not lose someone that I care about because it will really hurt me in the inside. It can also put stress on people the way that it did to me I get mad now whenever I see my dad drinking and driving or even hear because no matter what it is really scary. I can’t go a day without stressing that little fact that I may not see a family member again. Please this is the last time that I am going to repeat this can you think about the people around you even if you can’t make an effort to stop people from drinking and driving.

Sources used:

CGA.CT.gov

GHSA.org

Responsibility.org

Madd.org

know your limits.info

rethinkingdrinking.niaa.nih.gov

DUI.driving laws.org