“Being a teenager is an amazing time and a hard time… you get the best and the worst as a teen” but sometimes teenagers get carried away. The ”Affluenza Teen” case has prompted many people to discuss social issues such as drunk driving and reckless behavior.
16 year old Ethan Couch killed four people in a drunk driving accident; however, his defense team argued that he suffered from “Affluenza”. Although he had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit, the judge only sentenced Ethan to ten years of probation and time in a rehab facility versus twenty years behind bars. With this in mind, there was no justice served. In other words, Ethan Couch killed four people because he was being reckless, however, because he was a privileged, …show more content…
Reckless behavior is present at every teenage party. Almost every teen consumes alcohol at a party; equally important, their friends allow them to operate a vehicle knowing they have been drinking. The subject of reckless behavior relates to Ethan’s case given the fact that his friends knew he was drunk, yet they let him get in the car and drive. Pointed out by ABC News, “Despite many of the teens telling Couch he was too drunk to drive, all eight of them piled into Couch's red Ford F-350, six in the cab of the truck and two in the truck bed.” Drinking under the age of 21, drunk driving, and even just letting your friend drive after they consume alcohol is illegal. The Law Dictionary explained, “If you can't offer a convincing defense as to why you weren't driving, you may be arrested and charged with reckless endangerment.” Yet we let our friends drive drunk, ultimately upping the chance of a fatal …show more content…
Because of this, lives are lost everyday due to action that could have been avoided. Unfortunately many of these mistakes end in fatal accidents costing innocent lives to be lost. Ultimately something needs to be done about underage drinking and drunk driving, but how can we keep teens away from the alcohol?
Works Cited
Ballaban, Michael. “Two Students Arrested After Letting Friend Drive Drunk.” Jalopnik,
Jalopnik.com, 7 Dec. 2013, jalopnik.com/two-students-arrested-after-letting-friend-drive-drunk-1478583702.
Klass, Caila, and Alexa Valiente. “'Affluenza' DUI Case: What Happened Night of the Accident
That Left 4 People Dead.” ABC News, ABC News Network, abcnews.go.com/US/affluenza-dui-case-happened-night-accident-left-people/story?id=34481444.
“Motor Vehicle Safety.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease
16 year old Ethan Couch killed four people in a drunk driving accident; however, his defense team argued that he suffered from “Affluenza”. Although he had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit, the judge only sentenced Ethan to ten years of probation and time in a rehab facility versus twenty years behind bars. With this in mind, there was no justice served. In other words, Ethan Couch killed four people because he was being reckless, however, because he was a privileged, …show more content…
Reckless behavior is present at every teenage party. Almost every teen consumes alcohol at a party; equally important, their friends allow them to operate a vehicle knowing they have been drinking. The subject of reckless behavior relates to Ethan’s case given the fact that his friends knew he was drunk, yet they let him get in the car and drive. Pointed out by ABC News, “Despite many of the teens telling Couch he was too drunk to drive, all eight of them piled into Couch's red Ford F-350, six in the cab of the truck and two in the truck bed.” Drinking under the age of 21, drunk driving, and even just letting your friend drive after they consume alcohol is illegal. The Law Dictionary explained, “If you can't offer a convincing defense as to why you weren't driving, you may be arrested and charged with reckless endangerment.” Yet we let our friends drive drunk, ultimately upping the chance of a fatal …show more content…
Because of this, lives are lost everyday due to action that could have been avoided. Unfortunately many of these mistakes end in fatal accidents costing innocent lives to be lost. Ultimately something needs to be done about underage drinking and drunk driving, but how can we keep teens away from the alcohol?
Works Cited
Ballaban, Michael. “Two Students Arrested After Letting Friend Drive Drunk.” Jalopnik,
Jalopnik.com, 7 Dec. 2013, jalopnik.com/two-students-arrested-after-letting-friend-drive-drunk-1478583702.
Klass, Caila, and Alexa Valiente. “'Affluenza' DUI Case: What Happened Night of the Accident
That Left 4 People Dead.” ABC News, ABC News Network, abcnews.go.com/US/affluenza-dui-case-happened-night-accident-left-people/story?id=34481444.
“Motor Vehicle Safety.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease