Editorial: One too many

November 8, 2006

Drinking on and around our campus has always been a difficult-to-handle problem. Weekends come and go, and some feel there is nothing else to do but sit around and drink. As the night drags on, the drinks go down and the blood alcohol level goes up. Someone notes that they are hungry, a problem which should be solved, and the idea sounds good to everyone else. A plan to make a Wawa run starts to formulate with one key snafu: no one is sober enough to drive. One brave, but stupid, soul declares that he is not that drunk and could probably drive. Everyone else nods in agreement; the party moves to the parking lot. Eventually, a crowd of drunk college students drive to Wawa.

This is a hypothetical situation, but a very plausible one at the same time. Even if no one is harmed during the procession to the convenience store, much more than an empty stomach is in jeopardy. Drunk driving—no matter the length of the trip, how sober the driver claims to be or how well the driver knows the route—is a huge problem on college campuses nationwide.

The Ad-Council runs a radio commercial which has an obviously drunk person talking for a minute. The commercial is ridiculous, a bit funny and somewhat embarrassing from the speaker’s point of view. Suddenly, a smooth announcer cuts in with one simple line to put the situation into perspective: “It is easy to tell when someone has had too many. But how easy is it to tell when someone has had one too many?”

More and more every year, individuals feel a false bravado when it comes to drinking. This leads to seemingly sober people driving for the simple, yet terrible, reason that they don’t look drunk. They tell their friends not to worry about them, that they’re fine, they’ve only had a few drinks.

With newer, harsher penalties and regulations for D.U.I.s, one drink may be one too many when operating motor vehicles. Many states, including Pennsylvania, have lowered the legal consumption limit to .08, and the National Committee on Injury Prevention is pushing for a .05 limit. People who weren’t considered drunk five years ago are now. Additionally, for drivers caught, the penalties can be crippling. Instant suspension of your license, heavy fines, jail time and zero tolerance for underage drinkers—a minor being caught leads to loss of license until the age of 21—are becoming popular in many states.

On La Salle’s campus Nov. 1, a drunk driver struck a prospective student at the intersection of Chew, Wister and Olney close to 11 a.m. Although the driver was not a student, this should not diminish the weight this offense should carry on campus. It also should serve as a wake-up call that at any time of day, an event like this could quite easily occur.

Affecting students more directly, some La Salle students celebrated their Homecoming Oct. 28 with the annual party/gluttony fest, not sanctioned by the University, at the rugby field. This bacchanalia has grown to enormous proportions, and a good many students drive out to the field about a mile beyond campus to partake in the festivities. Before, the event took place at Belfield Park below South Campus, allowing students to walk. Today, people are driving out to the rugby field and then driving back. Even though the ride is merely a mile, there are a lot of people that live between the field and La Salle, who are unfairly put in harms way by careless, drunk students.

Figures can’t do justice to events like these, because most drinking and driving episodes go undetected. In 2004, about 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol, according to the Department of Justice. That’s less than one percent of the 159 million self-reported episodes of alcohol–impaired driving among U.S. adults each year, according to a 2005 report completed by the American Journal of Modern Medicine. Imagine how many more people don’t report their drinking and driving instances.

A common phrase among college students is “I’m not an alcoholic until I graduate.” As light-hearted as this remark is intended to be, the attitude that goes with it spurs all responsibility. Many students indulge in enough unhealthy drinking and have poor enough habits that they would be considered alcoholics.

About.com has an alcoholic screening quiz, which provides a good indicator to how serious an individual’s problem is. If students answer “yes” to any of the following questions, they are considered to be borderline alcoholics: “Have you ever had memory loss because of drinking? Do you drink alone? Do you drink because you are shy with people?”

Those who allow people to drink and drive are equally responsible, morally and legally, for any mishaps that might occur. Collecting keys at the beginning of a party may be an unhip idea, but it could save many lives. If any real change is to occur on campus or in the world, students and citizens must make conscious efforts to cut down on driving under any influence.

December is National Drunk and Drugged Driver Prevention Month. With Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Eve coming up, students should personally attempt to rid themselves of any alcohol-related ailments before the dangers these holidays bring leave behind any terrible mistakes. No one needs to become a victim or an assailant because of irresponsible use of alcohol over the holidays, or any other time of the year for that matter.