The act of driving is a daily activity for most physically and financially capable Americans today. While vehicles continue to grow exponentially safer, some even capable of self-driving, the human aspect remains the most inescapable danger to drivers. Their consequences are not just common accidents but a conditioned tragedy that faced me as one single, unbuckled moment in my own childhood seared into my memory. The most notable and common impairments involved within modern drivers today are alcohol, cannabis, distraction (texting), and fatigue. Each compromises the driver's ability in their own moment of misjudgement. To me, of all the voluntary impairments a human being can introduce to the act of driving, none is more recorded, or more brutally effective than alcohol. It is not just a misguided accident, it is fulfilling and dismantling someone’s life. Driving impairments misunderstands and negates all of the immense responsibility that comes with controlling a vehicle within a shared road. These are not minor misjudgments, even if you took driving school that doesn’t make you inevitable to not ever dismantle the pillars of safe driving.

     Alcohol-impaired driving is one of the most known types of crash to occur. In Colorado, I see signs of public awareness of those who have lost their lives due to someone’s mistakes. Despite years of these types of campaigns, alcohol impaired drivers still make up about 30% of today's car accidents. The start of this tragedy begins not with a missed turn, but with a sip of any alcohol. Alcohol’s effect on the brain is well-known and heavy. As a central nervous system depressant, it slows cognitive reaction time but, even worse, it affects decisions and judgment. At a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of just 0.02%, visual functions decline, and the ability to multitask and divide attention grows increasingly harder. The ability to track a speedometer, a rearview mirror, and a car as you merge, begins to decay. The pharmacological effects of alcohol is a recipe for a tragic display, it’s a cruel trick of poison that is eroding the capability to function. By 0.08%, the legal limit in most states, muscle coordination becomes poor, human necessary factors become under-skilled and a key to a weapon.

    The statistics are a blood-soaked legacy that has been tracked for decades. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 12,429 lives were erased in 2023 in the United States alone. These numbers don’t capture the horror of the event itself. I know, because I have lived the crash that exists between the lines of the average 57,939 involved in alcohol-impaired car crashes every year. I was seven years old and my father was driving, him and I went to go get my new purple glasses I had chosen weeks prior. In the backseat, I waited, my small fingers always held on to the hard, red plastic of the seatbelt clasp. Eager to unbuckle my seatbelt the second we arrived. I did not know this action was to sever the single thread of safety I had.

     What followed was not any loud, chaotic event, it went fast, my mind went completely blank. As my drunk father swerved into the left lane of traffic he sailed blindly into two cars that were followed with a big push of impact. My hand seized and pressed onto that red button. I went flying into the front seat and then jerked right back into the back. My stomach went from being eager and excited to punched with an uncomfortable, unnerving feeling. Before I could even blink I saw my father slumped in the front seat, his arm was bleeding, and he was mumbling and slamming on the wheel with anger. The flashing red and blue lights of the police cars that arrived devoured the scene around me. I remember a tall man opening the backseat asking me for my name and if I could walk and I had no answer. He carried me out to the ambulance where I was met with my dad who got bandaged before me and was on a stretcher. Days later, I returned home with not only a Rapunzel coloring book but a newfound feeling that demanded it chase me throughout every car ride. Every turn, and every stop would cause my stomach to clench into that same familiar knot. His revoked license was a mere formality, he continued to drive either way. This experience taught me that the choice to drive impaired is not a mistake confined to one person. Even if it comes from someone you’re supposed to trust it’s the non-negotiable truth. The influence it made on me sparks anytime behind the wheel. Any impairment means I do not drive, if I see an impairment from those around me it’s necessary to stop it. This is where and why drivers education and traffic school should use raw testimonials and example experiences. They must connect to statistics and information with an interpersonal feel of a situation that nobody is protected from. When education gets applied empathetically and personally it can effectively change the attitude that “it won’t happen to me.”

     Today, that twisted feeling no longer reaches me. It took acceptance over the painful event to untangle the knot that previously held my stomach. A few years later, I obtained a restraining order against him. I can say that I hope he isn’t continuing to drive into this dangerous gamble. To see someone pick up car keys after drinking is to witness and contribute to the creation of undeserving victims. The aftermath of such a choice in impaired driving is a life sentence, whether it is served in a prison cell, a hospital bed, or the silent pain of one's own memories.