In the United States, car
crashes are the leading cause of death among teenagers. If drunk driving
statistics are to be believed, the rising trend of teenagers driving
under the influence of alcohol is to be blamed for this.
In teenagers―those who resort to binge drinking in particular―alcohol is
often the root cause of overconfidence of being able to handle
anything. Then there is the case of peer pressure, wherein a teen will
be forced to take the wheel when he is drunk, even if he doesn't want
to. This, for some people, is just a means for deriving 'some fun'. In
either case, driving safety takes the backseat, and what follows is a
disaster.
A boy in his teens is 18 times more likely to crash his vehicle when he
has a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.05 percent than a boy in the
same age group who is sober. In girls, the likelihood of a crash is
three times more than what it is in case of boys.
Most of the drivers forget to use their seat belts after consuming
alcohol. In 2010, 56 percent of drivers in the age group of 15 – 20 who
were involved in fatal drunk driving crashes were reportedly not wearing
their seat belts.
The adolescent brain is undergoing major brain development, and
introducing alcohol to this fertile environment can have a lasting,
negative impact on growth processes. StopTeenDUI, is a website created by California's Administrative Office
of the Courts to inform teens and parents about the dangers of driving
under the influence. Additional, long-term outcomes from underage
drinking include a disruption of normal brain development, death of
brain cells and alcoholism. In other words, the temporary, feel-good
effects of alcohol have detrimental, long-term consequences that each
teen should consider before choosing to engage in underage drinking.