Motorists who choose to drive under the influence of alcohol eschew their responsibility to drive safely and make our roadways that much more dangerous for everyone. Drunk drivers play far too critical a role in the deadliest accidents out there.
Operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of drugs or alcohol is almost always a recipe for disaster. Alcohol is a depressant and can affect the central nervous system’s ability to function properly. Specifically, it can slow down CNS functioning and significantly delay a driver’s reaction time. As a result, an impaired driver might not be able to react quickly enough to avoid a collision.
There isn’t a driver on our roads who isn’t fully aware that driving while under the influence of alcohol is an exceptionally dangerous practice, yet some motorists refuse to forsake this life-threatening form of negligence. The truth is that drunk driving plays far too great a role in fatal traffic accidents. If an impaired driver leaves you injured in a car accident, especially those that occur at a high rate of speed, can lead to serious and sometimes deadly injuries. Those injuries often include traumatic head injuries, back injuries, paralysis, soft tissue injuries, and internal organ damage. If you or a person you love has been injured in a drunk driving collision, a Columbus drunk driving accident attorney at The Jones Firm is available to assist with every aspect of your claim.
How Drinking and Driving Causes Motor Vehicle Accidents
Drinking and driving often leads to serious motor vehicle collisions. For starters, alcohol can impair a driver’s vision, making it blurry and causing the driver to be unable to gauge distance or perception. In addition, alcohol can significantly delay a motor vehicle driver’s reaction time and ability to respond to situations that arise on the road. Therefore, an impaired driver might not be able to apply the brakes in time to avoid colliding with the rear of another vehicle.
The Effects of Impairment
When motorists are impaired by alcohol, it affects their motor coordination, which means it physically affects their ability to drive safely. Further, alcohol reduces inhibitions, which is reflected in the motorist’s decision to drive under the influence of alcohol in the first place. Alcohol can also play tricks with drivers’ vision and can cause cognitive impairment, both of which can obviously wreak havoc on safe driving.
The Statistics
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports all of the following sobering statistics related to drunk driving:
- Every single day, about 29 people die from traffic accidents involving drunk driving, which translates to one fatality every 50 minutes.
- Every year, the losses associated with drunk driving accidents amount to more than $44 billion.
- In 2016, fatal crashes related to drunk driving left 10,497 people dead and accounted for 28 percent of all traffic fatalities.
- Of the 1,233 children killed by traffic accidents in 2016, 17 percent involved an impaired driver.
- In 2016, there were more than a million arrests related to impaired driving, but this only accounts for 1 percent of the 111 million self-reported instances of driving under the influence that year.
Drunk drivers are among the most dangerous on our roadways.
