Each year, drunk driving kills about 10,000 people in the United States. This accounts for about 30% of traffic deaths. All these deaths are avoidable by simply not getting behind the wheel when you’ve been drinking or keeping someone else from doing so. 

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, every two minutes, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash. They also state that on average, two out of three people will be involved in a drunk driving crash during their lifetime. In 2013, a person died every 52 minutes as a result of drunk driving (a total of 10,076 people) and 290,000 people were injured. If these statistics don’t scare you, I don’t know what will. It is time to do something about it. We are the generation that can change these numbers and keep them decreasing into the future.

Everyone hears about drunk driving accidents, but no one thinks it will happen to them. I had this same mentality until December 19th, 2014, when reality came rushing into my perfect, untouchable world. It was my first day home for winter break and life was good: my brother had come home the same day, my whole family was together, Christmas was coming, it was relatively warm out, I was in the best state of mind, and I was about to spend three weeks with my best friends. I was almost home from the mall after doing some Christmas shopping with my friends when I saw a car speeding down the hill in my lane as I was driving up the hill. At this point, I was completely helpless and the only thing I could do was try to go off the road to avoid a crash. Obviously, this didn't completely stop the crash from happening, just helped lessen the impact. In the end ,my car was totaled, black and purple bruises were all over my body (still have some), I couldn’t walk or move my body for weeks, and I still have pain and headaches from it today.

So PLEASE never get in a car when someone has been drinking and never let a person who has been drinking get behind the wheel either. I personally know you wouldn’t want what happened to me (or worse) happening to you or a loved one. You can learn about the companies that will come and pick you up and drive you home in your car and more about drinking and driving at drinkinganddriving.org. On this website, you can also take the pledge never to drink and drive. I encourage you to all take this; I know my family and I already have and I have mine hanging in my room. We all must spread the word and take action to end drunk driving.