Impaired driving is when someone is driving under the influence or anything that affects their ability to drive. This is often misunderstood as there could be multiple reasons for impaired driving not just drugs it could be someone being diagnosed with something that can affect them driving or getting distracted by something other than driving. It is not always due to one thing, There are multiple reasons this could happen, but it gets misunderstood as just one reason not many.  

The most common impairment that happens with a bunch of drivers is alcohol and fatigue. The reasons for these 2 are because there are people who hang out and go out to a party, they end up drinking too much alcohol, especially over the drinking limit. These people end up saying that they are ok to drive but when they end up being on the road the alcohol can affect their eyesight and make things blurry or make them doze off. This ends up leading to car accidents as the limit of alcohol they have taken is too high, which affects the person's body. Another reason can also be fatigue because there are people who work late due to their job and maybe lacking sleep, when you are tired you aren’t focused on the road as much or you're trying to stay awake. Driving while dozing off is not good because when you are in a vehicle and driving you need to be alert at all times for so many reasons. You must stay alert for cars or pedestrians crossing especially little kids. Driving is something you need to take seriously. These affect the driver's ability to drive as they can get distracted or they aren’t fully aware of their surroundings, this is a huge safety risk. The reason why is because you are endangering yourself, people in the car, but especially people around you. When you aren’t fully aware while being a driver, you can affect the cars around you, especially if you don’t realize you are in the wrong lane, which is why so many accidents occur in the first place.  

There was this one story I have seen that has shown me how bad impaired driving is and how it affects the people around you. There was this one guy, he was in his car driving on the highway he was drinking more than he was supposed to. Meaning that the alcohol he drank was over the alcohol level that you can take. He was not fully aware of his actions or of the people around him. While he was on the highway, he started speeding while drinking alcohol. There was one car that was driving in front of him at the limit you are supposed to be driving at. The guy speeding ended up hitting that person’s car. The person in the driver’s seat ended up getting so badly injured that he passed away from the impact. There was another story of this girl, she was in the car with her friends, they were supposed to be taking her home. Her friends ended up going on an abandoned road while under the influence instead of taking her home, while on that road they ended up crashing, leaving the girl permanently paralyzed and being in a wheelchair for the rest of her life. Due to these factors, it increases the chances of more accidents happening and causes more casualties. In a real-world situation, this causes distractions while driving and does have a cause and effect on the driver but also the passengers in the car with them or someone on the road. In the first story it took someone's life because they were under the influence while driving and ended up not following any of the road rules. 

 

A role to play is the person who brings awareness to this situation, being able to spread the word about impaired driving. Being able to make a law or prevent these things from happening, like looking at cases and seeing what the cause was and how it had an effect. Educating others on impaired driving and giving them a scenario of a real-world situation and letting them think about it. Educating others on this is very important because it allows people to get knowledge about these things that happen in real life. Bringing the reality into education because there are so many people who need to be educated about this serious matter. Knowing the effects of impaired driving can help you when you're on the actual road. If you are educated about this matter, you're able to spread awareness about it and bringing facts into it can help back up your statement.