My Persuasive Essay

English 9 Persuasive Essay

By Lucas Van Eps

Drivers that have been caught driving drunk, should be punished severely.  Doing this would teach them a lesson, they would be scared to do it again.  Imagine if you were a drunk driver who killed an innocent kid, think of how you would feel.  This is why if the penalty was getting their license taken away, there would be a lot less people that would drive drunk.  Driving is a privilege, those that abuse that by driving drunk should have their licenses taken away for a year.  

Drunk driving is a major killer.  Listen to some of these facts.  The average drunk driver drives 80 times before he or she is caught.  Car crashes are the number one leader of teen deaths in the United States; one third of these are alcohol related.  50 to 75% of convicted drunk drivers continue to drive under a suspended license.  This last fact is especially important.  If their license would be taken away for a year or more they couldn’t even drive.  To drunk drivers this law would seem very unfair, but to everybody else this would seem totally logical.

Alcohol when absorbed into the body, has an impairment brain function which reduces the brain’s ability to make logical decisions.  This is why driving is affected, because your brain can’t decide when to turn or stop in time which can cause a crash.  On average, one person every minute is injured in an alcohol-related crash.

The suspension of licenses is a good idea, but more harsh punishments need to be created.  The first offense is a 90-day suspension, but I believe the second a person is found drunk they need to have their licenses taken away for a year of more.  I think how long their license is take away should depend on if they have other passengers with them or how drunk they are.  If they are involved in a crash their license should be taken away for 10 plus years and should serve  jail time if it is serious enough.

There are many terrible stories of how innocent people are killed by drunk drivers.  Most all of drunk drivers regret driving drunk once they are sober again.  Georgia is the only state that on your first offense you have your license taken away for a year.  I also think that when a person is found driving drunk more than once they need to either be arrested or have their license taken away for longer than a year as they do in Georgia.  All states need to follow in their footsteps and increase the security of the penalties.  Drunk driving is a very dangerous act and all people that are accused of it need to be punished very severely.