Ending Drunk Driving at ECU

Abstract

Impaired driving, better known as driving under the influence (DUI), refers to drinking alcohol and then operating a motor vehicle. Driving under the influence is as widespread as it is deadly. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, close to 4 million adults in America committed an estimated 112 million drunk-driving accidents in 2010 alone. Even though there is a high volume of drunk driving episodes, only a minuscule percentage of impaired drivers are arrested (Drunk Driving, 2019). The abuse of alcohol on college campuses is undeniably high. Alcohol use affects many aspects of a student’s life; mental, emotional, and physical health are all negatively influenced by substance abuse. While eliminating this harmful behavior entirely is going to remain an ongoing problem that cannot be fixed with one simple solution, we plan to greatly decrease one facet of the effects. Ending Drunk Driving at ECU is a mission to inform, persuade and educate the population of East Carolina University on the dangers of drinking and driving. We hope to make the Greenville community a safer environment by providing a wide array of educational opportunities to the students of East Carolina University. If college students continue this behavior, the number of students that drive while intoxicated and are injured in alcohol-related car accidents will continue to rise. Students will continue to believe that they cannot and will not be affected by the consequences of this behavior. As a result, they will to continue to risk their own lives as well as the lives of others. Thanks to input from students and faculty alike, we have a concept that we would love to turn into an educational video for the Health 1000 classes. We plan to make an entertaining video that gets the facts out there but does not shove statistics down the audience’s throats. Our goal is to create an entertaining video so that if/when students are downtown partying, they will remember the resources we provided through the video. We are hoping that by achieving this seemingly small feat, it will create a widespread impact that will continue to affect the ECU student body for many years to come.

Works Cited “Drunk Driving.” AddictionCenter, www.addictioncenter.com/alcohol/drunk-driving/.