One of the most pressing issues today is drunk driving and driving under the influence. A few days ago, I was told that a friend of mine lost a family member to a drunk driver. My friend's family member and another teenager were killed because a woman decided to drive intoxicated instead of finding another way to get from point A to point B.

I just don't understand it the concept of driving drunk. I mean, if you know that you will be going to a party, function or get together, you should either plan on not drinking or make sure that you have a designated driver. Whenever my friends would go out to a party or to a rave they would make sure that they had rides to and from the party. After I could walk again, I became their designated driver, I made sure I knew who was in the car I was driving and I made sure that they were there in the car and that they were safe. Because I was still recovering from my injury, I know that I wasn't going to drink, take drugs, or even dance. I just found a nice place to sit down and another time I went to a friend's house to finish up a paper that was due that night.

With all the choices someone could make, I still can never understand making the choice of driving while under the influence. In high school I took Driver's Ed and in that class, we had a whole section about drunk driving. We had a police officer come to our school with a car that was involved in a drunk driving accident. I was shocked at the state of the car that we saw. The whole front was smashed up and dented. The drivers side was horribly damaged, I don't remember how the driver fared.

Around this time of year since school has been let out, some teenagers are happy that summer has started and with graduation parties going on, more teenagers are drinking alcohol. Then because those same drivers choose to drive drunk, they risk not only their lives but the lives of their passengers and other people around them. In the area where I live, there have been many cases of drunk driving. I remember one case when the drunk had flipped their car over the median and hit a car on the other side of the road. It was a huge accident and was on a main road, so it was almost made into a bigger accident if the other cars hadn't seen what was happening and stopped. Drunk driving always affects other people besides the driver.

I have sometimes noticed that in a drunk driving accident, the drunk driver seems to have less severe injuries than passengers and others involved in said accident. It seems unfair to me that the driver can walk away from a horrible accident while the other people involved in the accident are badly hurt or even killed.

I have never understood how someone can make the decision to either drive drunk or get into a car that is being driven by an intoxicated person. There have been many accidents that I have heard of drunk driving and I have never understood why people who know the consequences of drunk driving do it. Even if someone thinks that they can beat the alcohol influence and drive normally they are wrong! You personally may think that you can beat drunk driving, but your brain is affected by the alcohol and no matter how sober you feel, you shouldn't drive home if you have been drinking that night. Drunk and intoxicated driving have caused many families to lose their loved ones or to have a loved one serve time because of their choice to drive drunk. It is a horrible thing to see on the news that a teenager was killed in an accident caused by drunk driving, and I hope that one day there will be no more drunk drivers on the road to cause others harm.