Drinking, Driving and Prom Night: Over Dressed, Over Served & Underage

Prom night is likely one of the most exciting nights of a 17 or 18 year-old’s life. It is also one of the most terrifying nights for their parents, who worry ceaselessly about drunk driving. Because no matter how much they may trust you, they don’t trust other drivers. Most of the time, an above-age adult is responsible for killing a teenager because they drove while intoxicated.

If you were in high school during the last 20 years, you remember all the efforts your school went through to eradicate drunk driving during prom. You were either shown a video displaying gruesome accident scenes, an accident survivor came to speak during an assembly, or the school may have even put what remained of a car from a drunk driving accident on the school’s lawn. Parents are doing all they can to educate their children as well, but this unfortunate situation still happens. In 2014, drunk driving fatalities accounted for 31 percent of all car accident deaths.

Why Do So Many Accidents Occur During Prom?

To put it quite simply, more cars on the road equals more accidents. That’s why many holidays such as Memorial Day or the 4th of July have the highest accident rates. Prom night makes it even worse, especially considering that overall, Saturday is the day with the highest number of car accident fatalities. So in general, there are already numerous factors that contribute to the potential dangers of prom night

Beyond the general facts, 16-19 year olds are the most at risk group for binge drinking – studies show that nearly 14 percent of those between the age of 12 and 20 do this – as well as getting in a car accident. Both of these things have a lot to do with inexperience; teen have only been driving for a couple of years, and they don’t know how to listen to their body when it tells them, “I can’t drink anymore.” One preventable contributor to the fatalities in this age group is seat belts. According to the CDC, 56 percent of teenagers who died in a car accident were not wearing their seat belt.

The binge drinking (having four or more drinks in one sitting) statistic is most troubling, especially since ten percent of high school students admitted to drinking and driving in a survey. The CDC notes that drivers aged 16-20 are 17 times more likely to get in an accident if their blood alcohol level is at or above the legal limit of .08, while other age groups are only seven times as likely in the same scenario. This number fluctuates depending on the study; females in this age range are 54 times more likely to get into an accident, according to Treatment 4 Addiction.

What Is Being Done to Prevent Drinking and Driving?

This is not all doom and gloom. In the past ten years, underage DUI arrests and accident fatalities have decreased dramatically, and that is a direct result of increased preventative measures taken to curb this tragedy. Arrests are in steep decline, but over the past couple of years there has been a small uptick in fatalities. No matter who you ask, any number above zero in this regard indicates that there is still work to be done. So parents and law enforcement alike are continuing their efforts to decrease DUI arrests and deaths.

• Sobriety Checkpoints – This is usually the go-to when it comes to catching and preventing DUIs. Contrary to popular belief, the intent is not to sneak up on people here. It’s a growing trend that checkpoint locations are well publicized before the fact, and help decrease the rate of DUI by nearly nine percent.
• Ignition Interlocks – Of the 44,500 drivers involved in DUI accidents in 2014, most are lucky enough not to have injured anybody, and realize the gravity of their mistake. But there are some who become repeat offenders, and that increases the chances of someone getting injured or worse. However, research shows that interlocks reduces the rate of a repeat offense by 67 percent.
• Personal Responsibility – Designate a sober driver. If your friend is drunk or even buzzed and wants to drive, don’t let them. If you have been drinking and can’t drive, get a ride from a sober person, or even call your parents. No amount of chores or length of grounding is worse than getting a DUI and/or losing your license.

Things like this as well as mandatory minimum laws have all shown to have aided in decreasing the rate of drunk driving. There are still more ways for you to ensure that you and your date get home safely on prom night.

Do Ridesharing Apps Help?

We all know about ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft. They’re way cheaper than a taxi, and the drivers are usually friendlier (no, we’re not getting paid to say this). They could also be a partial contributor to the large decrease in DUI arrests and fatalities. Uber was founded in 2009, and in that year there were more than 1.4 million arrests for drunk driving, and nearly 13,000 fatalities. In 2014, the most recent year with available numbers, there were a little over 1.1 million arrests, and slightly less than 10,000 fatalities. So the numbers, due to all of these things working in complement, are trending in the right direction.

Above all, getting an Uber or a taxi home, even if you’re an entire city away, is always cheaper and less of a hassle than a DUI. It’s important to think big picture; as a high school kid it’s likely that you’re not liquid, but $100 on a cab is way less than the $5,000-$12,000 you could be paying after a DUI, even if it’s just the first offense. There are 15 states which require an ignition interlock after the first offense, and if you injure another person, you could be looking at jail time. So on prom night, take care of yourselves and each other; get home alive.

*Featured Image By U.S. Navy photo by Joseph P Cirone [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons