APPly yourself & use these helpful apps

Welcome! Below I’ve created a list of three helpful apps to assist you or someone you know with staying safe on the roads after a night out. I think you’ll find them quite helpful! Share them with the ones you love, and spread the word on these great ways to help prevent drunk driving.

Uber is a great ridesharing app made by Uber Technoligies, Inc. Oh, and did I mention it’s free? And you can get Uber on almost any platform, iOS, Android, Windows, etc. The Uber app has a rating of 1 and a half stars, with 1,317 ratings. With Uber, you tap to request a ride near you, and the app lets drivers know where to pick you up. You can get information about your driver before they even show up (including their picture!). After the ride you can pay using a credit card, or many other online payment methods such as PayPal. So next time you’re out with friends and have had a little too much to drink, pull up Uber on you mobile device, and get taken home safely. Don’t risk your life or the life of others.

Lyft (made by Lyft, Inc.) is another excellent taxi alternative app for when you cannot drive home. This is another free app with 4 and a half stars, reviewed by 380 people. This app is available on iOS, Android, Windows, and many others, and is very easy to use. You can even split the cost of the ride with friends if you all get a ride together. All of the Lyft drivers pass a comprehensive background and DMV check, so you don’t need to worry about getting home safely… unless you choose to drive under the influence.

Reminder is a free app that comes on Apple products (iPhone, iPad etc.), and is made by Apple, Inc. It is only available on iOS. This app is a lifesaver for many different reasons, but let’s focus on it being a literal life saver. Before you go out, set reminders on your phone to help yourself have a fun, but safe night. Your reminders could say many different things, like “Don’t drive home, Take Uber!” or “Call Chelsea for a ride home at (897)678-3344.” You can even set notifications to alert you when you arrive or leave a certain location! How handy. Sometimes, we have great intentions, but when we are in a situation, those things suddenly aren’t priorities anymore. With this app, you can motivate and encourage yourself as the night goes on to be responsible and safe.

Know Your Stuff: Myths About Drunk Driving

November 15, 2016 ~ stay alive, don’t drink and drive

Hello and welcome back! If you aren’t caught up, no worries. Click here to read my last blog post, and you’ll be up to speed in no time. Today we’re going to be looking at some common beliefs about drunk driving, and seeing if they are actually true. Some of them might surprise you! Let’s jump into it!

1. It will never happen to me

The myth: I will never get caught drinking and driving. I only do it when I really need to get home, and I’m always really careful when I do.

The truth: According to the Department of Motor Vehicles, your chances of getting caught are actually very high. In 2007, California had  more than 200,000 DUI arrests, with 1,500 of those leading to fatalities. Don’t become one of the numbers.

2. The Two Drink Rule

The myth: If you only have two drinks, it’s impossible to get a DUI.

The truth: Blood alcohol levels are different for every individual after having two drinks. According to AAA’s website, blood alcohol levels can be influenced by gender, body weight, strength of the drink, size of the drink, food, as well as several other factors. Never assume just because you’ve had two drinks, you’re safe to drink. For some, a couple drinks won’t even register on a breathalyzer, but for others, two drink will register as legally drunk.

3. Hard alcohol is worse

The myth: I always stay away from the hard stuff, so I know I’m good to drive.

The truth: Alcohol is alcohol. One 12-ounce beer has as much alcohol as a 1.5 ounce shot of whiskey, or a 5-ounce glass of wine. Just because you aren’t drinking hard alcohol doesn’t mean that you are safe to drive.

4. The Waiting Game

The myth: I just have to wait a little bit before driving, and then I’ll be good to go.

The truth: According to Drink Fox, alcohol is metabolized or broken down by the body at a rate of 0.016% per hour. It doesn’t matter how big of a person you are, or what alcoholic beverage you drank, once your blood alcohol concentration (BAC) reaches a certain level, your body needs time to break it down and remove it from your system. If a person with a BAC of .16 leaves a bar at 2 a.m., his/her BAC will reach zero at noon the next day. At any time before seven a.m., he/she would have been above the legal limit.

5. If you do get caught

The myth: If I do get caught, I will pay the fine and that’s it.

The truth: According to the Department of Motor Vehicles, a DUI can cost you a lot more than just a fine. You may also have to pay court fees, drivers license reinstatement fees, go to DUI school, serve jail time or do community service, and install an ignition interlock device.

6. Blood Alcohol Concentration

The myth: The legal BAC limit to drive is so high that I don’t have to worry about it.

The truth: In California, it is illegal to operate a vehicle with a BAC of 0.08% or higher for people 21 and older. You would be surprised how quickly people reach this limit with only a few drinks.

7. Minors

The myth: If I am a minor caught drinking and driving, I’m okay as long as I do not exceed the legal limit of 0.08%.

The truth: If you are 21 or younger, it is illegal to be driving with a BAC of 0.01% or higher.

8. Driving under the influence of what?

The myth: DUI laws only encompass alcohol.

The truth: California’s DUI laws includes medications, too. You cannot legally drive if you’ve consumed illegal drugs or prescription medication or over-the-counter medication.

Hopefully now you have a better understanding of what is and isn’t legal. And remember–drinking and driving under the influence of any amount of alcohol is never a good idea. It is better to be safe than sorry. DUI conviction stay on your driving record for 10 years, and are taken very seriously which can affect your future education, employment, and even relationships. Think before you do.

For more info on DUI laws visit http://www.dmv.org/ca-california/automotive-law/dui.php.

Also, visit the Mother’s Against Drunk Driving Twitter page for helpful resources.

Connect With Us: Media

November 8, 2016 ~ stay alive, don’t drink and drive

Welcome! If you’re new here, this is a place where we talk about drunk driving. Before we begin, feel free to catch up on my first and second blog posts.

Drunk driving hurts, damages, and kills. It is a problem that not only affects the individual who chose to drive drunk, but innocent people around them as well. Driving drunk is inconsiderate and flat out irresponsible. The approach I am taking to help solve this problem is to spread awareness. That’s where this blog comes into play. And you can be involved too! Follow along, read the posts, and if you agree, feel free to share them. You can also connect with me on Twitter and Facebook, and share my blog posts there.

Your Online Life, Permanent as a Tattoo Ted Talk

During his TedTalk, Juan Enriquez talks about the idea of “electronic tattoos.” The concept is that whatever you put out on the internet is permanent. Once it is out there, there is no getting it back. No undoing it. This could have some major consequences, especially when it comes to drinking. With snapchat being so popular now, the majority of what we do with our friends gets recorded, especially in social settings like parties. Even if you think you are only sending it to a certain amount of people, the reality is that anyone could be seeing it. This means that future employers, professors, or boyfriends/girlfriends could see your drunken night, and everything that you did that maybe you don’t even remember. This is definitely something to consider.

Copyright Statement

On this blog, I will not be using any copyrighted material. When I get information from other places, I will cite and link my sources so you, the reader, can see where they directly come from.

Check Yourself (and your sources) Before You Wreck Yourself

October 31, 2016 ~ stay alive, don’t drink and drive

Welcome back! Last time we were together, I shared my cousin’s story with you all, and invited you to help me spread awareness about drunk driving. (If you missed it, click here to get caught up!) Before we start spreading information around, we want to make sure that our sources of info are accurate. I’ve looked through some common sources of information about drunk driving, and sorted them into sources that are 100% reliable, and others that you may want take with a grain of salt. So let’s get started!

Green Light Sources:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is one of the major operating components of the Department of Health and Human Services that works to protect America from health, safety and security threats. The CDC was established in 1946, and works with partners at the local, state, and national level.  One of the approaches the CDC takes in disease prevention is public awareness. By educating the public, they hope that people will be able to recognize and avoid some of these health problems. The CDC’s website is a good, accurate source to find information and statistics on drunk driving. At the bottom of the page, you’ll even find that they list out twenty three sources that they used on this short article, so if you want to know where they are getting their statistics from, that information is easily accessible.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) was founded in 1980 and works to stop drunk driving, support the victims of drunk driving, and prevent underage drinking. This nonprofit was founded by a mother whose daughter was killed by a drunk driver, and now, MADD has grown to become the largest nonprofit working to protect families from drunk driving. MADD is a great source for information about drunk driving, and is one of the nation’s most widely respected organizations regarding this topic. For every fact or claim on their website, MADD cites the source directly underneath the claim so that you can access the study or experiment that discovered the finding. MADD is very active all over social media with a facebook page, twitter, and even a Pinterest. Because all of these social media accounts are run by MADD, the information you will find is reliable and valid.

Red Light Sources:

Wikipedia is a source that a lot of people gravitate towards simply because it is one of the first to pop up when you do a google search. Don’t get me wrong, Wikipedia can be a great source, but it is definitely one to use caution with—perhaps more of a “yellow light” source. As most people know, anyone can edit a Wikipedia page, so the information may be false. There is a reference list at the bottom of Wikipedia pages, so I would recommend looking more at those sources rather than the actual Wikipedia page itself. It can be a great starting point though, when trying to find sources on the topic. On the “Driving Under the Influence” page, there are forty five sources to explore! Just be careful to only pull facts and statistics that have a reliable source, and cite that rather than citing Wikipedia.

Youtube is another one of these “yellow light” resources. While it can be helpful and a good source of information, it is also hard to tell if the information you are hearing is true. Youtube videos can be made and uploaded by anyone, so while some channels might have accurate information being presented, other videos may simply be a matter of personal opinion. My recommendation is that you watch the videos, but pay close attention to who the author is. If it is not a credible source, then do some fact checking yourself.

Many people use Yahoo Answers as a place to ask questions about when they are “safe” to drive after drinking, or how much can they drink while still being in the clear to drive home. Yahoo Answers is a community-driven Q&A website that allows users to submit questions and answer other people’s questions. This source is a definite red light when it comes to this topic. There is no way that anyone will be able to know this for sure, especially if they are not there in person with you. The only way to be 100% sure you are good to drive is to use a breathalyzer, or go in to the lab and get a real blood alcohol test done. While I’m sure Yahoo Answers can be helpful for some things, I would recommend avoiding it altogether when it comes to drunk driving advice.

Hopefully this post will help you in your quest to spread awareness about drunk driving by giving you a solid foundation to start with. If we do not know the facts, then how can we spread them? Do your research, but only pull from reliable, truthful sources. Avoid articles that seem biased, or full of opinions without evidence to back them up. So what are you waiting for? Let’s get going!

Drunk Driving: The Scary Truth

October 19, 2016 ~ stay alive, don’t drink and drive

“Faith Lorraine Tsarnas, age 14, passed away in a tragic accident July 12, 2016.” As I read the opening line of my cousin’s obituary, I couldn’t believe it. How was she gone, just like that? No hugs, no kisses, no goodbyes—just gone. We got a call at 4am the morning before telling us there had been an accident. A hit and run. And Faith didn’t make it.

Faith was at her friend Kaia’s house that day—the two girls were all smiles because they had convinced their parents to let Faith spend the night that night too. The girls grabbed their skateboards and were going to go for a quick ride. This was one of their favorite activities, and they were giggling as they raced down the street, picking up speed quickly. Kaia’s street connects to a beautiful road lined with redwood trees, which is where the girls ended up.

As they rode along, a car came speeding up behind them and hit them both. Kaia went flying into the bushes on the side of the road, and Faith was drug under the vehicle for 12 feet. The car stopped for a few seconds, and then sped away.

The driver was Kaia’s mom. She had been drinking. A lot.

In a panic, she drove home, and hid her car in the backyard under a tarp. She then proceeded to drive back to the scene in another car and call 911, acting like she had just found the girls on the road. When the paramedics came, they declared Faith dead right away. Suddenly, they heard someone in the bushes crying for help, and they found Kaia, covered in blood, dirt, and debris. She was airlifted to the hospital, but they did not make it all the way there before Kaia passed away too.

Let’s Stop The Problem

This is why I hate drunk driving, but I’m sure a lot of you have your own reasons and stories about people you know. So why are we not doing something about it?

Drunk driving hurts, damages, and kills. It is a problem that not only affects the individual who chose to drive drunk, but innocent people around them as well. Driving drunk is inconsiderate and flat out irresponsible.

According to the CDC, every day, 28 people in the United States die in motor vehicle crashes that involve a drunk driver. This amounts to one death every 53 minutes.

On average, two in three people will be involved in a drunk driving crash in their lifetime, according to the NCADD.

The approach I am taking to help solve this problem is to spreading awareness. I am hoping to help people see how the decisions that they made so quickly can affect everyone, not just themselves. You can be a part of this too! Be responsible yourself, and then keep your friends in check.

Know how such a quick, momentary decision can permanently affect many people’s lives.

Feel motivated to help spread awareness about drunk driving, including keeping yourself and your friends in check when you have been drinking.

Do be prepared when going out to drink. Assign a designated driver, or be willing to pay for an Uber. Keep your friends accountable with this as well.

First blog post

This is your very first post. Click the Edit link to modify or delete it, or start a new post. If you like, use this post to tell readers why you started this blog and what you plan to do with it.