Drunk Driving Trends and Effects Drunk driving and driving under the influence in general is a major problem in the United States. The problem is a common cause of traffic accidents and traffic fatalities and demonstrates a pervasive legal and social issue that has yet to be adequately solved and may even be increasing in occurrence as the population spreads into larger and larger areas. (Flahardy 4) According to Flahardy statistics show that first time arrestees on DUI charges have driven their cars while intoxicated on average 80 times before being detained and arrested on their first DUI charge. As the distance between destinations grows ever wider incidents of impaired driving seems to be increasing as the convenience of alternatives to driving yourself home become more mentally prohibitive, i.e. distance, cost, convenience, and time. (Flahardy 4)

DUI seems to affect in incidence a greater number of young people and be a problem that is associated with age, inexperience, and possibly the psychical incidence of risk taking among younger peoples. "For young people aged 4-34, motor vehicle accidents are the number one killer (Subramanian, 2006, NHTSA, NCSA). Data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) from the NHTSA's National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) for 2004 show that more than a third of the operators between 20 and 29 involved in fatal accidents had alcohol in their systems." (Kramer A71)The statistics associated with driving under the influence are alarming "Every year drunk driving causes more than 17,000 fatalities and 500,000 injuries. Alcohol-related fatalities in the past 25 years, according to the Web site AlcoholAlert.com, total well over half a million." ("Wheels of Misfortune…" 4) Though DUI and the deaths and disruptions it causes are not solely a young problem as people of all ages are affected by DUI, and the patterns associated with DUI, i.e. The number of times one will drive while intoxicated...

The challenges are many when it comes to developing legislation and laws that address DUI, especially considering that there seems to be a disconnect between evidence-based practices that are known to work and a very legalistic individual responsibility perspective on the issue. The national trend has been to impose stricter sentencing for DUI ("Wheels of Misfortune…" 4), yet there is an indication that the kinds of things that work best are those that teach deterrence through education and awareness and offer viable alternatives to drinking while impaired i.e., improved public transportation, better teaching on the definition of a designated driver, more awareness of moderation and how it is achieved. (Kramer A71) According to Kramer, even though it is clear that these types of prevention interventions decrease the number of DUI events (with and without arrests) they are seen by the public as encouraging poor behavior rather than determining it with tougher laws and sentencing, even though the deterrence argument is not necessarily…