They Feel Invincible
Hardly anyone ever thinks they’ll be in an accident, but the average person will be involved in three to four in their lifetime. When you’ve been drinking, you feel happy and capable of anything – which is how many impaired drivers feel when they get behind the wheel.
Peer Pressure
There is a tremendous amount of social pressure when drinking in a group. Many drunk drivers choose to drive home because they don’t want to appear as if they can’t hold their liquor. Unfortunately, our pride and concerns of self-image can skew our thinking.
Impaired Decision-making
Alcohol slows our reaction time, impairs our memory and clouds our judgment. Without a clear mind, we make decisions that we normally wouldn’t. If you’re not with a sober person who can stop you from getting behind the wheel, you convince yourself that you can do it.
Unfortunately, this reasoning results in countless accidents each year that could have been prevented. Some of the shocking statistics include:
- In 2013, 28.7 million people in the U.S. admitted to driving under the influence of alcohol.
- A driver will drive drunk 80 times before the first arrest.
- Someone is injured in a drunk driving accident every two minutes.
- Someone dies in a drunk driving accident every 51 minutes, which is 27 people a day.
- One-third of teen driving deaths involve underage drinking.
If you’ve been injured in a car accident that you believe was caused by a drunk driver, contact Trantolo & Trantolo’s experienced car accident attorneys today to make a claim.
