It happens in the flash of an instant: someone loses a child, a spouse, a parent, or a friend at the inebriated hands of a drunk driver. This scenario is indeed a very cliched one, played over countless times in public safety announcements and driver's education classes. Yet the reason the scenario described here is so cliche is in deed a very sobering one, that is, drunk driving is America's most rampant crime. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, there were 354 alcohol-related traffic fatalities in the year 2003, a figure which, though slightly decreasing, still ranks among the nation's highest. Therein is the reason for that all-too-common scene of loss, death, and grievance, lives ruined because of a driver's lack of judgment. Something must be done to alter this reality ere this nearly epidemic irresponsibility turns this state's roads into places of terror.

Recognizing what the state is currently doing to prevent and punish drunk driving is first key before one can direct the future. Currently in North Carolina, driving with a blood alcohol content at or above .08 is deemed unlawful. Driving Under the Influence or Driving While Impaired (DUI/DWI) may be considered a felony offense based upon the number of times the offender has been convicted of the charge in the past. This affords for a more heavy handed punishment of those who habitually drive while inebriated. Handily enough, NC also employs a law which lowers the blood alcohol content necessary to charge a person with drunk driving if that person is a repeat offender. This way, those drivers whom law enforcement knows to be on the road to trouble based on past criminal acts can be dealt with before they reach the blood alcohol level usually required to press charges. On top of these laws working against drunk drivers is the fact that jail time is mandatory upon the second conviction of a DUI/DWI offense. An alcohol history assessment and education program is also required for those convicted of a DUI/DWI offense. After four DUI/DWI offenses, the state of North Carolina will confiscate the offending driver's car for a period of seven years.

The list of North Carolina's laws continues on, though there is no need to dwell further on the details here. Instead, when considering what future course to take to improve the outlook of North Carolina's drunk driving situation, it is helpful to understand what other nations around the world are doing to improve traffic safety. Japan and Germany are the two top producers of cars beside the United States, as such it may be considered that those nations hold nearly the same enthusiasm for driving that Americans do. The Fundamental Traffic Safety Program was established by the Japanese government in 1970, and event which would have a marked impact on the number of traffic fatalities per year has been on a steady decline since 1970 and now hovers well below the 10,000 mark. The reader should keep in mind that the US had 42,643 total traffic deaths in 2003, and though Japan is indeed a much smaller nation, the downward trend in the number of accidents and fatalities should be encouraging for Americans seeking solutions at home.

Germany, with its world-famous enthusiasm for speedy cars and plentiful drinking, has also seen a downward slope in the number of traffic accidents and fatalities in recent years. In 2002, Germany had 6,828 total traffic fatalities, a figure that was down about two percent from the previous year. By contrast, America had 43,005 traffic deaths in 2002. Again, the size of the nation must be considered when judging by the individual statistics, but Germany's decreasing numbers invite further investigation.

What is it that these two car-loving nations are doing that United States, and specifically North Carolina, is not? The answer, as well as the strictness of these nations' driving regulations, may be surprising. Part of Japan's Fundamental Traffic Safety Program was a clause providing for the immediate incarceration of driver's convicted of drunk driving. For an alcohol-related accident, the punishment is twenty years of jail time or more (the reader should bear mind that North Carolina only requires jail time on the second offense, and not necessarily for a period of twenty years). Shifting from the Land of the Rising Sun to the land of Oktoberfest and the Autobahn, it is intriguing to note that Germany has similarly heavy-handed penalties for drunk driving. As opposed to North Carolina's BAC limit of .08, Germany has imposed a limit of .05. A drunk driving conviction in Germany earns high fines and the revocation of the offender's license. While North Carolina also provides for the suspension of a driver's license on the first offense, a German driver's license is an exponentially harder license to acquire, requiring twenty-five to forty-five hours of instruction and a fee of about $2000. It is safe to say that after such rigorous instruction, most German drivers know that the bottle and the wheel do not mix.

Perhaps North Carolina should take a page from the books of Japan and Germany when it comes to tougher drunk driving regulations. To reform the outlook on NC's alcohol related traffic incidents, education as to the harmful effects of driving under the influence of alcohol should be mandatory for all citizens before receipt of a driver's license. This measure certainly would not end all drunk driving, yet if it would make at least one person think twice before getting behind the wheel drunk, then a life might be saved and the measure would certainly be worth the price. Revocation of a driver's license should be mandatory upon the first offense of drunk driving, as well as at least ten years of jail time if the driver was involved in an accident while inebriated. After a period of ten years and a court investigation to ensure that no other crimes have been committed by the driver in the period since the DUI incident, only then should a driver be eligible to reapply for a license (provided that person is not still in jail) after retaking the drunk driving prevention course and paying a high fine along with reparations to the families of any victims the driver may have injured.

These measures may come across as harsh, and so they are meant to. Yet such extreme consequences may be imposed by the state because of the fact that drunk driving accidents are never truly accidental. Deciding to drive after drinking is a willful act, one which cannot be written off as a mistake. Other traffic violations such as speeding may be a result of negligence or may be a simple accident on the part of the driver, yet one must willfully choose to drive while inebriated. A drunk driver's lack of judgment, or rather, denouncement of judgment and general irresponsibility, may cost more his or her own life. Driving under the influence of alcohol takes lives, which no amount of jail time, fines, or reparations can bring back. And so the cliche returns, the idea that one person's decisions may impact many people besides. Yet if North Carolina begins to treat drunk driving as many foreign nations do, as a willful act deserving the full force of the law, then there may come a day when there is no need for such a cliche. The 354 children, spouses, parents, and friends lost in 2003 alone would be grateful.