Drunk driving and binge drinking is a huge social issue that colleges, students, and society need to take more seriously. Everyone is familiar with the stereotype that college students enjoy partying and drinking on the weekends. This stereotype is true at just about every college in the United States and underage and off-campus drinking happens every day. College binge drinking has even become a ritual and a part of the college experience. According to the NIAAA, binge drinking is defined as a pattern of drinking alcohol that brings blood alcohol concentration to 0.08 percent—or 0.08 grams of alcohol per deciliter—or higher.
Binge drinking also has become a severe issue on college campuses due to the wide availability of alcohol, academic anxiety, and an increased social pressure to drink. Hanna Gemmell, former Vice President of Event and Risk Management at Furman University says, “binge drinking is mainly centered around organized events ranging from sporting events or frat events. It is highly destigmatized at my college and almost encouraged in certain social settings. I would say daytime events almost encourage more binge drinking as the time people want to stay drunk increases dramatically.”
Figure 1: Typical College Apartment Binge Drinking Alcohol Bottles
Binge drinking is becoming more and more common at colleges all around the United States due to easy access. In fact, Hanna Gemmell says “a typical college campus consists of an environment that is surrounded by alcohol whether it is at sporting events, social events, academic events or even at their own living quarters.” Although, most students recognize that binge drinking is a serious issue and agree that it has become a problem on campuses. For instance, Tait Lamb, a senior at Furman University, said that she definitely knows people who binge drink constantly at her college and think it is a huge issue.
Although drinking alcohol or having a glass of wine is not the issue, drinking becomes an issue when students decide to binge drink which may lead to poor choices, and thus are more likely to drive drunk on their college campus. Seth Dominiak, a resident of downtown Charleston, expressed how drunk driving is such a large problem at The College of Charleston. Seth stated, “it is a huge issue. People drive drunk because it’s convenient at the moment, they don’t think about the long-term problematic effect it can have on so many things.” Not only can binge drinking lead to poor choices like drunk driving, but it can also lead to terrible health issues. For example, binge drinking can lead to liver diseases and various forms of cancers, and other chronic diseases. According to the National Cancer Institute, drinking in excess increases the risk of several types of cancer, including head and neck, esophageal, liver, breast, and colorectal cancers.
Colleges and society in general could be doing so much more to help solve this issue. One-way colleges and society could prevent college drunk driving is by reducing the reasons students get behind the wheel in the first place. Every year more and more Americans are arrested for driving under the influence. One of the most common reasons that Americans get behind the wheel intoxicated is because they were hungry and wanted to make a fast-food run according to The Drive Newsletter.
Therefore, colleges should provide a 24-hour food source because it will decrease drunk driving of students leaving college campuses for a bite to eat. For example, on weekends when students finish tailgating or partaking in parties at night, they have no source of food on-campus to help them sober up or satisfy their late-night munchies. As a result, it is no surprise that a hungry, drunk college student might be more prone to the dangerous decision of getting behind the wheel to pick up snacks or go through fast food drive-thrus that are open 24-hours.
Figure 2: Drunk driving is a huge threat to college students.
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism estimated that about 1,519 college students ages 18-23 died from drunk driving and alcohol-related injuries in 2021. Drunk driving is an issue that doesn’t just affect college students, but it affects the entire community, as well as its surroundings. On-campus food could be a strong deterrent for students leaving campus late at night for food in addition to avoiding other risks of being off campus late at night. In conclusion, a good start for colleges and society to reduce drunk driving in college students is by having a 24-hour food source so colleges can start seeing positive changes in students' eating, drinking and life habits.
Another way colleges and society could prevent drunk driving on college campuses is by providing easier access to transportation and creating more awareness about riding sharing apps as well as carpooling. Furman University Senior, Claudia Roe, says, “Drunk driving is a huge issue on college campuses with students drinking at least two or three times a week. However, I think the rise of ride sharing apps and increased awareness of the consequences of drunk driving plays a big impact when wanting to decrease the number of drunk drivers on campus.”
Tait Lamb also discussed some alternatives to drunk driving. She thinks with ride sharing apps it is so much easier to avoid drunk driving. There are many alternatives to drunk driving such as Uber, Lyft, or calling a friend. Tait Lamb also expressed, “it is so much better to pay for an uber and get home safe than to wreck your car and pay, kill someone, or get arrested.”
The results of drunk driving have serious consequences for you, the people around you and society. Binge drinking that leads to drunk driving is incredibly selfish because it also harms others around you both physically and mentally. Seth Dominiak who knows firsthand the consequences of his friend's selfish act to drive drunk reported his thoughts. One of Seth’s friends from high school was at a college bar and decided to drunk drive and he ended up hitting a bike-cab driver causing him to become paralyzed for the last couple months and his friend could be facing years in prison. After the incident Seth reported, “I was embarrassed for my friend because he knows the rules and there should be no excuses. I was somewhat glad that he will be used as a learning lesson for my other peers who might consider getting behind the wheel drunk.” Drunk driving is usually a quick moment decision that can end lives for another or oneself.
As a result, some common physical consequences that occur in drunk driving incidents include:
· Injuries
· Paralysis
· Disfigurement
· brain damage
· alcohol disorder,
· sometimes death
Some emotional consequences include:
· PTSD
· Nightmares
· sleep disorders
· anxiety
· depression
· jumpiness
· problems concentrating
· guilt
· suicidal thoughts
· mental and emotional stress that can include counseling as well as therapy
There also are bad financial consequences that occur which include:
· legal fees
· fines
· bail fees
· towing
· DMV fees
· medical testing
· increase in auto insurance.
The legal consequences are also pretty severe which could include:
· driver license suspension
· imprisonment
· vehicle impoundment
· vehicle license plate confiscation
· ignition interlock device restrictions
· alcohol abuse evaluations
· mandatory alcohol abuse treatment programs
· monitored sobriety
In conclusion, colleges, students, and society need to start taking the social issue of binge drinking and drunk driving more seriously on college campuses. There are three ways that colleges can help improve these issues.
1. One way is by educating college students on the effects of binge drinking and drunk driving through posters, social media and mandatory programs or training sessions. If students are more educated about the consequences and the harm, then they will be less likely to binge drink, get behind the wheel and more likely to stop a friend from drunk driving.
2. The second way is to reduce the reasons that students get behind the wheel in the first place. A common reason students drive drunk is because they are hungry and want to make a short drive to a fast-food restaurant. A great start for colleges to try to reduce drunk driving on campuses is by opening a 24-hour food source which would lead to positive changes in students’ eating habits, drinking and remove bad habits of leaving campuses drunk.
3. The third way is to provide easier transportation for students and create more awareness about ride sharing apps as well as carpooling. This example would result in less impaired drivers on the roads and fewer alcohol related incidents in colleges.
As a result, these improvements would result in safer campuses, a decrease in the number of students who binge drink and it would reduce the number of drunk drivers on the road as well as on college campuses.
Works Cited
“Drinking Levels Defined.” National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, https://www.niaaa.nih.gov/alcohol-health/overview-alcohol-consumption/moderate-binge-drinking#:~:text=NIAAA%20defines%20binge%20drinking%20as,)%2C%20in%20about%202%20hours.
“Alcohol and Cancer Risk Fact Sheet.” National Cancer Institute, https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/alcohol/alcohol-fact-sheet.
Gibson, Kate. “Drive-Thrus Top Drunk-Driving Destination: Survey.” The Drive, 29 Jan. 2018, https://www.thedrive.com/article/18005/drive-thrus-top-drunk-driving-destination-survey.
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