Psychology of DWI Activism in Cyberspace:
Simply Said Don't Drink
and Drive!!
Table of Contents
Instructions
for this Report
Overview of NCADD (Coming
Together Against Drunk Driving)
Overview of Your Source for Drunk
Driving ( DUI / DWI ) Defense Information
Overview of Mothers Against
Drunk Driving (MADD)
Overview of Business Against
Drunk Drivers (BADD)
Overview of Driving While
Intoxicated
How Do I Compare With Others
in My Generation
Conclusion
Overview
of NCADD (Coming Together Against
Drunk Driving)
This site is
a database for research done on driving while under the influence. It provides
traffic safety professionals with easy access to "Traffic Safety Research
Abstracts/Applications". This group or organization identify and
summarize studies that they find addresses the problem of drunk driving.
After they review these abstracts they provide practical applications for
the program personnel in the field.
I think that
this site is very useful for professionals who create programs to help
those people that drink and drive.
Youth
and Adolescents
This particular
page is a summary of various abstracts and reports done on the youth and
drinking. It reports on used programs in the past and current programs
in use. It also gives suggestions to reduce the drinking and driving
in youth. In the past alcohol awareness was supposed to be a scare
tactic for the youth. This page also addresses the factual presentation
of alcohol as not good enough either. Both tactics can lead to curiosity
which they believe lead teens to try alcohol. Some successful programs
included getting the youth actively involved in prevention activities in
school and communities and programs which change their attitudes toward
drinking and driving.
Some of the suggestions
are anti drunk driving norms for youth adopted by all states, zero tolerance
for drivers under the legal drinking age, revoking licenses of underage
drivers until they are of age, prosecuting juveniles as adults and maintaining
their records into adulthood.
I
think that the suggestions for anti drunk driving are very good.
I do not see anything wrong with the consumption of alcohol but, I do feel
that we could use stricter penalties for the youth. I especially
like the idea of zero tolerance or even spendy tickets. Either way,
if we up the risk maybe less people will be prone to take them. How
many teens do you think would risk their drivers license for a year if
they were caught DWI?
Here is a list of links to
the abstracts found on this page:
Young
Adults
This page is
devoted to young adults (21-34) who drink and drive. They start the
page with a startling statistic that "drunk drivers between the age of
21-34 years of age are responsible for more alcohol related crashes and
kill more people than any other age group." They go on to say that
it is the norm for people at this age to drink because it is part of a
young adults' social life. They provide us with a list of do's and
don'ts on how to reach this age group.
One of the suggestions
on getting to this particular age group is through work. They report
that young people value their jobs a great deal and what goes on in the
work site affects you out of work.
They believe that a policy that incorporates
zero tolerance for impaired driving with consequences will limit drinking
and driving on and off work.
I do not agree with the suggestion of how work will likely affect whether
we drink and drive or not. I think that it is great that they are
searching for ideas but I do not agree with that one. I am currently
employed and I really like my job but when I clock out I would like to
think how I spend my time is my decision. Maybe it would stop people
from drinking at work but I never realized that was much of a problem.
What right would an employer have to say what you can and cannot do off
the clock? Does that mean when you have a job you can no longer have
a social life? I hope not cause if that was the case more people
may choose to be unemployed.
Here is a list of links of abstracts
found on this page:
Chronic
Drunk Drivers
Although this
page categorizes the majority of drinking drivers as white males between
21 and 34, I think it involves all ages. This article briefs us on
the chronic drunk drivers that get caught on more than one occasion. These
chronic drunk drivers are considered to be alcoholics. The property
damage, deaths, injuries, and the cost of enforcement. This
report summarizes for us several strategies that prevent chronic drinking
and driving and their faults.
I think that this was a very informative page and it brought some new ideas
into my head. I think that the penalties for these misdemeanors are
too slight and that they need to be used in combination with each
other to be effective. I particularly liked the idea of taking away
a persons license right there on the spot. Along with that taking
away that persons license plates would also prevent him from driving without
the license let alone drunk. Being that most of these people are
alcoholics making them go to AA or some mediative course to retain their
license again would be worthwhile. Along with that making it mandatory
for them to attend drivers education wouldn't hurt any either. After
being caught the first time lowering their BAC limit was not a bad idea
either.
The BAC limit brings some questions to mind. How many beers would
it take to be over the BAC limit? I do not have any experience with
drinking nor do I care to but out of curiosity I am wondering. You
see I am only 145 and if I were to have one or maybe two beers would that
push me over the limit? What about wine? I do not think that
would be right to say because I had a glass or two of wine I was driving
drunk even if I read over the BAC limit. I know that it depends on
the duration you had your drink and all that but who determines what is
the safe BAC limit? Is it really accurate to say that your coordination
and everything is thrown off due to your BAC because it could be different
for everyone.
Here is a list of links to
the abstracts found on this page:
Using
Technology to Prevent DWI
This page dedicates
itself tot he use of technology to aid in controlling the drunken driver.
Its main tools are the ignition interlock and electric monitoring.
The ignition interlock is a device that attaches a breathalyzer to the
ignition. If it reads a BAC above the legal amount you will not be
able to start your car. The Electric monitoring is used for those
people at risk who get sentenced to home confinement. They can be
checked on 3-4 times per day. They are allowed to go to work and
school but are confined to their home otherwise.
I
really liked this page because it gave other suggestions to keeping the
recurrence level of DWI down. I especially like the idea on its ability
to save the taxpayer extra money by not having to support these people
in jail. These people pay for these services out of their own pocket
to stay out of jail and to hold onto their license. This sounds
very fair to me because it will only inhibit the person charged with the
crime and not the rest of the population. The ignition interlock
will also keep those people off the road whose BAC limit is too high.
All this keeps the taxpayers money in their wallet which is what I like
to hear.
Here is a list of links of abstracts
found on this page:
Treatment
of DUI Offenders
This page reports
on the effectiveness of some programs and the relatedness of each program
to the kind of offender. For example an educational program would
not work with a heavy drinkers or multiple offenders. Again
in order for these programs to work studies show that combinations work
best. An example of one of these proven combinations is; education,
licensing sanctions, psychotherapy/counseling, and follow-up supervision.
I think that this page is a little short in that it did not have as much
information I thought it would. I was hoping to find more rehability
programs but there were little mentioned here. I think that this
is an area worth looking into because there has to be more effective ways
of getting people from drinking and driving over and over again.
I think it may just take a little devotion to devise a new therapy or rehab.
Here is a list of links of
abstracts found on this page:
Legal
Sanctions
This page gives
a great deal of ideas and examples of some places actually implementing
these legal sanctions. It is agreed upon that the laws are not strict
enough but it also acknowledges the fact that the risk ratio is low.
If the public was more aware of penalties or actions when caught, DWI could
go down. Of the 200-2000 times a person may drive under the influence
it was mentioned they may be caught once. These are good enough reasons
to risk driving even without a license as many people do. If these
people are caught in some states they take away your license plate or impound
your car. The use of the electronic devices to deter DUI was mentioned
here as well.
I really liked reading about how we can change and do better for ourselves
but really, WE HAVE TO IMPLEMENT THESE IDEAS IN ORDER FOR ANY CHANGES TO
OCCUR.
We can only hope
that legislation will work this out for the better of society and the safety
of ourselves as well as others.
Here is a list of links of
abstracts found on this page:
Overview
of Your Source for Drunk
Driving ( DUI / DWI ) Defense Information
This page
gives you advice on what to do where to go and how not to get caught DWI/DUI.
It is put on by the Law Office of William C. Head. On this page there
are many links that deal with DUI/DWI. One of the links on this page
is a Drinking Drivers
Defense Network. This page gives you a number to call for a lawyer
in your area to represent you. These lawyers are apparently screened
and tested before they are admitted to this defense network.
I
thought that a lot of the information presented here was enlightening.
I learned a bit on the policies of being tried and tested for your BAC.
I highly suggest this page to those being tried for DUI/DWI because they
may find it useful.
Overview
of Mothers Against Drunk Driving MADD
This page is
the page to visit if you are an advocate of not drinking and driving.
It is an organization put together by more than just mothers. They
provide statistics in fatalities and crashes involving alcohol. They
have lobbies and show clippings of articles of events that benefit them
or go for their cause.
I
think that this page is useful if you are victimized by a crash dealing
with alcohol. I also think that it is a good organization firm in
its beliefs and will not stop at much to pass stricter legislation.
This group is here to help us all in their eyes. Sorry if you like
to drink and drive, this group is on to you.
Overview
of Business Against Drunk Drivers (BADD)
This non-profit
organization is not as large as MADD but it is up and coming. It
is set in its firm belief that the workplace makes an influence on their
employees lives. They put on seminars and have ways for us to make
the workplace safer with brochures or having flyers about alcohol and driving
in with your paychecks.
I
thought that this page was interesting and informative. I suppose
after reading this page I can see how it can influence the workers of a
company to be more aware of their alcohol consumption. But I still
think that it is not full proof and that it is most beneficial in spreading
the news of new legislation. I also think that this will mostly benefit
the less educated in that I mean those that have never had any information
on alcohol available to them prior. This is another group set against
the idea of drinking and driving.
Overview
of Driving While Intoxicated
This page is
put on by the reasonable drivers
unanimous site. I liked reading and searching through some of
the links on this page because it presents another view. It is against
drunk drivers not intoxicated drivers. They believe that lowering
the BAC is not the solution to get the bad drivers off the road.
Instead it only limits the good drivers. The Reasonable Drivers Unanimous
Site is dedicated to getting the bad drivers off the road, that is until
they become retrained better driver.
I liked this page because they are not as opinionated as some of the others.
This page takes a more liberal approach and I like it. I think that
it addresses legitimate points like that of the BAC. I for one do
not understand much about it but it was very convincing to me that it could
be inaccurate (the BAC). I like how this page criticizes the legislation
about the .08%. After going over this page I think I am more understanding.
How Do
I Compare With Others in My Generation
I think that I hold
my own in comparison with other student reports. Granted my reports
may be plain with no icons or fancy background but it should download faster
and read easier. Although there are other reports with a lot of colors
that some may find attractive that others may find distracting. One
of these pages would be Holly
Ishikawa's page. I like the use of the varied fonts and colors
because it makes her report more lively and not as boring as others like
my report. Another page worth looking into would be Mike
Silva's, his report much like my own is very simple to read and not
too complex. His points and ideas are expressed well and uses a good
font and background colors for his report. Another report done on
this topic was Nicole Young's
she brought an interesting point forward about our reports in her Comparison
to Other Students Section. She reports on how all our reports
are similar in more than one way but that would be due to the explicit
instructions and particular topic.
Conclusion
Ok so now that everyone
has read through these reports everyone should have an opinion on DWI.
I think that we are not going to stop people from drinking and driving
but we can decrease that amount by having designated drivers and have sleep
overs or simply calling a cab. I also think that it would be possible
to learn to drive impaired. After all you are relying on your automatic
self for most of our nonintoxicated driving anyway. I do not really
have to worry for myself because I do not drink. Well anyway this is not
a topic to be shunned because it is serious and should be held or thought
about and kept serious.