Drunk driving is one of the most dangerous things on the road. It is the leading fatalities because when people are intoxicated, they do not know their space and their eyesight is not the best. Things become blurry and sometimes people do not even remember things that happened so they can not follow the road laws. Even though there are laws that state to not drive while intoxicated. Sometimes that does not stop people from doing this horrible action. Some people do not realize how intoxicated they truly are, or people are too intoxicated to know right from wrong.

While doing my service hours for the National Honors Society, I realized that now would be the perfect time to get a little more insight of what Mia Howards future plans were and what big steps did the community around them take to make Kristina feel heard and Mia known. I asked Kristina if she would be willing to do an interview with me so I can get a little more of an understanding. When I asked this, she immediately smiled and said "Of course, I love talking about her so other people can hear about her and her story!” The first thing that I asked was “Where did Mia want to go to college?” Kristina stopped for a second to think and it was almost like a light bulb went off in her head, her eyes started to have tears in them, and she replied with “She wasn't sure exactly where she wanted to go to college. She was still looking but most likely in Florida with her cousin.” Following her answer, I thought about what she said and then I wondered what she wanted to do as a career, so I then asked Kristina “What did Mia want to pursue as a career?” Kristina replied, “Mia wanted to be a dental hygienist.” Kristina was so excited to answer this question because Kristina is also in the healthcare field, but she is working at University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. The last question I chose to ask was, “Is there anything that Allen Park Schools did for you or your family?” Kristina stated that “There is a Mia Howard Memorial Scholarship to help students and also create awareness of the tragedy.” 

She pulled up a picture on her phone of the certificate that she took a picture with to represent Mia. I told her explained that was all the questions I had for her and if she thought of anything else I would be happy to hear about it. Kristina stopped and thought for a couple seconds and started to tell me some things about Robert Merrit and what happened to him. Kristina said, “Robert Merrit will be behind bars for 15 years and was sentenced with 2nd degree murder, one count of Operating While Intoxicated Causing Death, and one count of Reckless Driving Causing Death.” I just wanted to double check that Kristina touched on all the charges that he was charged with, I checked on the Wayne County Prosecutor Website. 

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) “Alcohol is a substance that reduces the function of the brain, impairing thinking, reasoning and muscle coordination. All these abilities are essential to operating a vehicle safely.” This is explaining that it is always unsafe to drive while intoxicated and should never happen. Unfortunately, it happens a lot. In 2022, 13,524 deaths from drunk driving crashes occurred. No matter how you try to explain it, that number is way too high and should never be that high. When someone is intoxicated, the first thing that is affected is the nervous system. This means that it goes to the bloodstream and then to the brain. When it goes to the brain the person has little control of what they are doing because they are unable to take care of themselves the right way. When an intoxicated person gets into a car accident, because their nervous system was affected, their muscles were also affected. When they hit another car or thing, their muscles do not tense up. Meaning they are less likely to be injured, and this is also why drunk drivers normally live and 

the other person does not. The sober driver’s instincts are to tense up and brace for impact and because of this is now prone to more injuries while the intoxicated driver’s muscles do not do this and is less likely to have any major injuries. The name for this is soft catching. 

According to Roberts & Spiegel Injury Lawyers, there are three types of impact: “The first is between the vehicle and an object, the second between the occupants and the interior of the vehicle, and finally, a third impact within the occupant and their internal organs.” The sober driver is affected by the vehicle and an object, the occupants and the interior of the vehicle, and the impact within the occupant and their internal organs. While the intoxicated driver is normally only affected by the type that is between the vehicle and an object. When their muscles do not tense up it is harder for them to get hurt because they are not forcing any pressure on the impact, but the sober driver's instinct is to try and tense up and stop things from happening, even though at the end of everything they are hurting themselves more by doing this. 

The police officers measure a person’s alcohol level by the weight of the alcohol in a certain volume of blood. This is called Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC). In all 50 states, The District of Columbia, and Puerto Roco, it is illegal to drive with a BAC of .08 or higher, except in Utah the BAC limit is .05. Even though that is the amount that is illegal, any amount of alcohol can affect the way you drive. In 2022, there were 2,337 people killed in alcohol-related crashes where a driver had a BAC of .01 to .07. 

There is so much more information on drunk driving. However, I feel like I have found the most important details about the recurring problems that have been recently happening. There are always so many unanswered questions, that sometimes will never actually find the answers too. When you show people the actual statistics and numbers of how often this happens, normally you have people realize that this could turn out bad for them or bad for the other 

person, so they quickly stop putting people in danger. Sometimes though, even after people know all of the information and see it all in front of their eyes, sometimes they still go out, and do it because they do not think that this could ever happen to them. Driving in a car is scary because you could get into so many kinds of accidents, but unfortunately, most of the time, the fatalities in car accidents are because of drunk drivers. It is also important to be aware of your surroundings and be careful at all times. Hopefully this paper will bring awareness and open most drunk driver’s eyes and put a stop to it.