The dangers of drinking and driving is especially dangerous for teenagers and not much is being done about it. Traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for teens, and roughly 1/3 of these accidents involve alcohol or another substance (DoSomething). Although it is lower than the previous years, it is still enough to take notice. Teens are less likely to understand the consequences of drinking and driving. Underage drivers are also likely to not wear seatbelts, 74 percent of the young DUI drivers involved in a fatal car accident were not wearing seatbelts (Stim). To lower the rate of teen drunk driving incidents, the government can enact more laws, advertise more PSA’s, and aid in the process of rehabilitation for teens. If we implement
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Along with the punishment, the government should aid in stronger rehabilitation for teenagers. One third of drunk drivers arrested are repeat offenders (Fell). That means that the punishments they got the first time were not effective enough. New Jersey has an Alcohol and traffic safety education program, but it is not very effective. Along with the rehabilitation and the punishment the teenager has gone through, it is also a good idea to require interlocks. Interlocks are cheap, small and very helpful to erase this issue. They have reduced drunk driving by two thirds (MADD). Right now, it is only required in 17 states because the government is not funding this enough. They gave $20 million dollars for the interlock devices to be used. That might sound like a lot, but with a $3.9 trillion dollar budget, it is absolutely nothing. With these margins, the government would need about fund about $60 million dollars total to get these interlock systems in every state. Even $60 million dollars is nothing to the government. As civilians, we need to bring this topic to the attention of the government for them to take care of this problem. The federal government needs to rehabilitate these teenagers and spend more money on this
Along with the punishment, the government should aid in stronger rehabilitation for teenagers. One third of drunk drivers arrested are repeat offenders (Fell). That means that the punishments they got the first time were not effective enough. New Jersey has an Alcohol and traffic safety education program, but it is not very effective. Along with the rehabilitation and the punishment the teenager has gone through, it is also a good idea to require interlocks. Interlocks are cheap, small and very helpful to erase this issue. They have reduced drunk driving by two thirds (MADD). Right now, it is only required in 17 states because the government is not funding this enough. They gave $20 million dollars for the interlock devices to be used. That might sound like a lot, but with a $3.9 trillion dollar budget, it is absolutely nothing. With these margins, the government would need about fund about $60 million dollars total to get these interlock systems in every state. Even $60 million dollars is nothing to the government. As civilians, we need to bring this topic to the attention of the government for them to take care of this problem. The federal government needs to rehabilitate these teenagers and spend more money on this