I shouldn’t have to make a case against drunk driving. We all know it is wrong, it is deadly, and it ruins many lives. But people still do it. FULL DISCLOSURE: I have driven when I have had too many drinks, and I regret it even though I have never had any adverse outcomes. Not everyone is so lucky, and when you are a politician or a public figure everyone finds out about it:
Huntsville City Council man arrested early this morning.
Will Culver District 5 arrested and booked into jail around 2 this morning for, DUI, DRIVING ON WRONG SIDE OF ROAD, NO TURN SIGNAL, IMPROPER LANE CHANGE. @whnt pic.twitter.com/CsIeORJtgv— Jeff Gray (@TrafficJeff) April 22, 2018
Why this matters: If you are fiscally conservative, drinking and driving is a terrible decision compounded by the realization that you are being ideologically inconsistent. A DUI cost, on average, $10,000. Remarkably, before a person is stopped for drunk-driving, estimates say that person will have driven over-the-limit 80 times.
The math on this is simple. The average Uber ride costs $13.36, if you were to take an Uber round-trip each time you were drinking, it would only cost you $1,068.80. Now we could factor in the financial value of your career and reputation, but with just raw dollars, your net savings IF you took an Uber every time you had a few drinks is on average $8,931.20.
The details:
— Drunk driving is responsible for 30 percent of Alabama traffic deaths.
— Drunk driving is pretty prevalent in America and someone is injured in a drunk driving incident every 120 seconds.
— A person is killed in a drunk driving crash every 51 minutes. That’s 27 per day.
— While we focus on school shootings, traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for teenagers. One-third of these accidents involve alcohol.
@TheDaleJackson is a contributing writer to Yellowhammer News and hosts a conservative talk show from 7-11 AM weekdays on WVNN in Huntsville.
