Young People Ask . . .
What’s Wrong With Drinking and Driving?
“I BLACKED out while driving home,” says Mike, recalling that he had too much to drink that night. “But somehow I made it to my house. When I got up the next morning, I noticed that the passenger side of my car was badly damaged, but I couldn’t remember having an accident! I drove around trying to figure out what had happened, and that’s when I saw it. The big stone pillar near the cemetery had been hit, and the paint from my car was all over it. I must have smashed into it the night before! It really scared me.”
Mike got off easy—he lived to talk about it. Unfortunately, many others do not. “Drunk driving is the leading cause of death for young people aged 16-24,” says the 1984 Report on the National Conference for Youth on Drinking and Driving. ‘Oh, it won’t happen to me!’ you may think. But that’s probably what many a victim had said to himself! See also the box on page 20, “It Can Happen to You!”
But if drinking and driving is so dangerous, then why do so many young people do it?
Why Youths Drink and Drive
As to why youths drink, peer pressure is a popular reason given. Yet some youths retort: ‘My friends don’t pressure me to drink.’ However, peer pressure may be more subtle than you think. Youths are often influenced, not simply by overt invitations to do something, but by how they feel their peers view them. As the manual Alcohol and Alcohol Safety, by Peter Finn and Judith Platt, explains: “The need to belong is felt by everyone, but for teen-agers this need is intensified, and to be ‘out of it’ can be especially hard to take. It is no wonder that group pressure is often thought of as a major explanation for teen-age drinking.”
But why do so many youths drink and then drive? ‘Adults do it, so why shouldn’t we?’ some youths reply. And there’s no denying that some adults set a very poor example in this regard. But is that any reason for you to do something so potentially dangerous?
‘But what’s the harm in driving if all you’ve had is a couple of beers?’ some may ask. That points to a major reason why youths drink and drive—they (and adults, too!) are victims of myths about the effects of alcohol. Here are a few examples:
MYTH: It’s safe to drive if all you’ve had is a couple of beers.
FACT: “The alcohol in two 12-ounce [355-cc] cans of beer consumed in less than an hour can slow a driver’s reaction by 2/5ths of a second—allowing an automobile traveling at 55 miles per hour [89 km/hr] to travel an additional 34 feet [10.4 m]—possibly the difference between a near miss and a crash.”—Development of a Traffic Safety and Alcohol Program for Senior Adults, by James L. Malfetti, Ed.D., and Darlene J. Winter, Ph.D.
MYTH: Having some black coffee will sober one up more quickly.
FACT: Coffee may make a person more awake, but he’s still drunk. The body eliminates alcohol at a fixed oxidation rate regardless of how much coffee one downs. Only time helps a person sober up.
MYTH: It’s OK to drive as long as you don’t feel drunk.
FACT: It’s dangerous to rely on how you feel. Alcohol creates an illusion of well-being, making the drinker feel that he’s in control when in fact his abilities have been diminished.
Dangerous though it is for anyone to mix drinking and driving, it’s even riskier for youths. Why?
Unique Risks
Lack of experience is one factor. For instance, if you were going to fly in an airplane, would you prefer a young, new pilot or a seasoned veteran with many years of flying experience? The answer is obvious. But why prefer the experienced pilot? Because you know that people are more likely to make mistakes or miscalculations when an activity is new to them.
The same applies to drinking and driving. Thus, a report on traffic safety and alcohol notes that the driving performance of youths who are drinking “worsens more rapidly than that of adults because driving is a newer and less routine skill for them. In short, most teenagers are both inexperienced drivers and inexperienced drinkers, and even more inexperienced at combining drinking and driving.”—Senior Adults, Traffic Safety and Alcohol Program Leader’s Guide, by Darlene J. Winter, Ph.D.
Weight can be another factor—young people generally weigh less than adults. The less a person weighs, the less fluid there is in his body to dilute the alcohol he consumes. To illustrate: Imagine taking two cubes of sugar of the same size and dissolving one in a very small glass of lemonade and the other in a large tumbler of lemonade. Now, the amount of sugar in each would be the same, but the concentration in the smaller glass would be greater. Similarly, the concentration of alcohol is higher in a person who weighs less. And the higher the concentration of alcohol in your bloodstream, the more intoxicated you become.
What Will You Do?
Since so many problems are related to alcohol, young people who abstain altogether from drinking it are doing the wise thing. However, drinking in moderation is not wrong, provided one is of legal age and drinks moderately. (See Psalm 104:15; 1 Timothy 5:23; Proverbs 23:31.) But drinking and driving—that’s another story. What will you do?
The Bible offers this wise advice: “Shrewd is the one that has seen the calamity and proceeds to conceal himself, but the inexperienced have passed along and must suffer the penalty.” (Proverbs 22:3) Given the dangers of mixing drinking and driving, you are “shrewd” if you vow to yourself that you won’t mix the two. You can thus spare yourself needless “calamity”—crash-related injuries that leave you crippled or claim your young life.
And you may spare the lives of others as well. You may not imagine yourself as a killer. Yet, when you mix drinking and driving, your chances of killing another person go up dramatically. “The driver, passengers, pedestrians, and people in other cars are all equal targets of the impaired driver,” says Just Along for the Ride, by the National Association of Independent Insurers. Why risk incurring bloodguilt?—Compare Exodus 21:29; Proverbs 6:16, 17.
Not to be overlooked is the law of the land where you live. In many areas, driving while intoxicated (DWI) or driving while ability impaired (DWAI) is against the law. Many places also have a minimum legal drinking age, and the Bible tells us to be obedient to the governmental authorities. (Romans 13:1; Titus 3:1) In that way you can avoid not only fines or imprisonment but also the incurring of God’s displeasure.—Romans 13:2-5.
Besides refraining from drinking and driving, there are other things you can do to safeguard yourself and others from an alcohol-related traffic accident: (1) Don’t get in a car with a driver who’s been drinking. Life is a gift from God. (Romans 6:23) Why put such a precious gift into the hands of someone who’s been drinking? (2) Don’t let a friend drive if he’s been drinking. He may get upset, but, then again, he may appreciate what you did once he comes to his senses.—Compare Psalm 141:5.
“It really scares me to think that I could have killed someone that night,” says Mike. “To this day I get afraid driving at night, knowing that there are drivers out there in the same condition I was in.” Mike doesn’t mix drinking and driving at all any more. What about you? Don’t take a chance, thinking, ‘It won’t happen to me.’ Have the courage to be different. Promise yourself that you won’t drink and drive. Then, no matter what others say or do, live up to your promise.
[Box on page 20]
It Can Happen to You!
Reports about alcohol-related traffic accidents are often in the news. It’s easy to think, ‘It won’t happen to me!’ But such tragedies happen far more frequently than you may realize. Consider some of the sobering facts about youths and drinking and driving:
“Alcohol use by young people is on the rise in most parts of the world. . . . Road accidents, many of which are related to alcohol, are one of the major killers and producers of disability in young people.”—World Health.
“A teenager is involved in an alcohol-related accident in [the United States] every 10 seconds, less time than it takes to fix a drink.”—Aide magazine.
“A teenager is four times more likely to have an alcohol-related crash than any other driver. . . . While the life expectancy of most people in [the United States] is rising, that of 15-to-24-year-olds is not.”—Just Along for the Ride.
So before you even consider drinking and driving, remember—it can happen to you!
[Picture on page 19]
Drinking and driving often leads to this
[Credit Line]
H. Armstrong Roberts