Tag Archive: Drunk Driving
Stay Safe With Spring Break Apps
March 10, 2016
For those headed out of town for spring break, whether it be to a sunny beach or a snowy ski slope, your vacation can create a lifetime of fond memories or, with one mistake, a lifetime of regret. Here are a couple of spring break apps to help you avoid that lifetime of regret.
A lot of students on spring break give in to the urge to drink and the lack of judgment that comes with alcohol use can lead to trouble. Police in spring break locales are beefing up their DUI patrols and are on the lookout for any driver that might show signs of being under the influence of alcohol. It’s such a big problem in spring break cities that the local police have no tolerance for driving under the influence and are very unforgiving.
One way to stay out of trouble is to decide on a plan before you go out to drink. If you decide beforehand that you’ll use a designated driver or call a cab to get home, chances are that you’ll stick with that decision but, if you wait until after you’ve been drinking and your judgment is affected, you may not make such smart choices. If you feel you must drink, here are a couple of spring break apps that, hopefully, will keep you out of trouble.
ENDUI (as in End DUI) is an app that warns you if you’ve had too much to drink. The user plugs in their sex, height, and weight and then, by telling it how many drinks have been consumed, it calculates your approximate Blood Alcohol Content (BAC). The app also has games that can test your reaction time. If you decide, before you go out, to limit your drinking, this can be a good tool to warn you when you’ve reached your limit. However, the app only gives an approximate BAC and can’t be used to determine your actual BAC. One drink, such as certain cocktails can have several shots and have up to four times the alcohol content of a typical drink. Only a breathalyzer or blood test can give an accurate BAC reading.
Another app called “SaferRide”, created by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), doesn’t try to determine your BAC but, instead, can locate and call a local taxi service for anyone who needs a ride home. It can also hold a list of designated drivers that the user pre-programs into the app. This app is ideal for those on vacation in an unfamiliar city.
Both of these handy spring break apps are free and available for download:
SaferRide – Android, or Apple iOS.
Remember that buzzed driving is impaired driving. Make your spring break a fond memory and not a regret.
Prom Night: One Item Parents Should Splurge On
April 7, 2015
Prom night is just around the corner an proms can get pretty expensive for parents; from expensive dresses, tux rentals, flowers, and photos, it can all add up. However, there’s one item parents should really consider splurging on to keep their kids safe on prom night; a limo.
Prom night can be one of the most dangerous nights of the year. In spite of all the warnings that parents give, once the kids are out of sight, there’s really no way to predict what they may do or prevent them from participating in some of the more dangerous activities on prom night such as drinking or using drugs. At that age, peer pressure can be much more powerful than parental rules and warnings.
Prom night isn’t a night when you want to trust the driving to a teen. A recent study showed that sixty percent of teen crashes are caused by driver distraction. It’s not just texting and cell phones that cause the distractions. In fact, the biggest distraction for teen drivers is interacting with their teen passengers. Even if the kids remain sober, the excitement, novelty and the gathering of friends can be very distracting to a young driver. Driving late at night, after a long day of planning and the activities at the prom itself, can lead to drowsy driving. Also, even if the kids are sober, there are more drunks on the road on those late weekend nights and those drunk drivers combined with distracted teen drivers can lead to tragedy.
Parents should consider hiring or at least contributing to the hiring of a limo. If the parents do the hiring, then the limo driver works for them and the parent can set down certain rules for where the kids can go and at what time they should return. To save embarrassing the teen, the parents can arrange to check in with the limo driver for updates. The teens can feel glamorous and be as loud, raucous and distracting as they want while riding safely in the back, while the limo driver, sealed off in the front, concentrates on the road ahead. It’s a win-win situation for all.
Traffic Deaths Spike During Spring Break
March 20, 2015
Traffic deaths spike during spring break according to a study released recently by the journal Economic Inquiry. The researchers looked at different spring break hot spots and and found the the number of traffic fatalities in those localities were significantly higher compared to other localities in the same states at the same time of year.
The researchers from Department of Sociology in the University of Miami (UM) College of Arts and Sciences, studied fatal traffic crashes from the last week of February to the first week of April in 14 spring break hot spots across seven states: Arizona, California, Florida, Nevada, South Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.
Key findings include:
- The weekly death toll resulting from car crashes in the 14 spring break counties was 9.1 percent higher during the spring break season compared to other weeks of the year.
- This translates into 16 more traffic deaths per year in all 14 counties examined.
- There was a significantly higher incidence of traffic fatalities that involved out-of-state drivers than in-state drivers.
- Fatalities involving drivers younger than 25 years old were far more common than fatalities involving older drivers.
- During the spring break season, there was no significant increase in traffic fatalities in non-spring break counties located in the same states as the spring break counties—supporting a true spring break effect.
One of the most interesting findings was the fact that “There were no statistically significant differences between traffic fatalities involving drivers with alcohol impairment compared to those with no alcohol impairment.” While alcohol certainly has an impact, this finding shows that other factors such as driver distraction are equally as dangerous.
During spring break, there are so many things that can distract a driver including:
- Large crowds of pedestrians on the road.
- Festivals, rock concerts, and promotional events in view of the roadway.
- A car full of excited young people in search of a good time.
- Hot bikinis and six pack abs along the roadways.
- Driver fatigue.
A driver needs to not only be aware of and try to ignore the distractions but also be on the lookout for other distracted or drunk drivers.
If you feel that you may be missing out on the views while concentrating on the road, take turns swapping driving duties with a friend in order to become a spectator.
Don’t become a statistic during spring break. Make sure that your spring break provides a lifetime of fond memories and not a lifetime of pain and regret.
Read more: Traffic fatalities spike during spring break
YouTube Videos Fail To Show Whole Story
February 25, 2015
YouTube videos of alcohol use by young people fail to show the whole story and can be a dangerous influence on teens. This conclusion is the result of a study conducted by the Center for Research on Media, Technology, and Health, at the University of Pittsburgh and published in the journal Alcoholism Clinical and Experimental Research.
The study’s authors looked at 70 of the most popular YouTube videos regarding alcohol intoxication. Combined, the videos had a total of more than 333.2 million views and the number of “like” designations totaled more than 99 percent compared to less than one percent of “dislikes.” Twenty-four percent of the videos involved the use of motor vehicles.
The problem with the videos, according to the researchers, is that the videos portray alcohol use in a funny or glamorous way without showing any of the negative aspects of alcohol abuse. Negative aspects of alcohol use include, but aren’t limited to; vomiting, sexual assault, car crashes, arrest, and death by alcohol poisoning.
For parents, these videos open up an opportunity to start a dialogue with teens about those negative aspects of alcohol abuse that aren’t portrayed in the YouTube videos.
Read more: Hammered And Heedless: Do Dangerous Drinking Videos Harm Teens?
Even Just One Drink Is Too Much
May 21, 2014
Even one drink is to much according to a study by the University of California San Diego that looked at crash data from 1994 to 2011 involving over 570,000 collisions. The study found that drivers who had a Blood Alcohol Content as low as 0.01 percent were 46 times more likely to be blamed in a crash. Read more: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140116084842.htm