Name:
Eve Tranchito
High School:
Cleveland Heights
Essay:
It's the 15-year-old family friend, the three high school seniors on the hockey team, the boy who sat behind you in geometry freshman year. Everyone has their own story, their own personal loss of a friend, classmate, neighbor, or acquaintance taken victim by a drunk driving incident. That is why I have developed a plan to save my classmates, my friends, and take responsibility to save my school.
There are over 17,000 deaths caused by drunk driving per year. This has been the count for over two decades. For 20 years we have seen no substantial decrease in deaths, and certainly not injuries either, with that number being recorded in the hundreds of thousands per year and rising. The question we face is what have we done to stop these climbing numbers? What can we do, now, to fix this?
I attend a large, public school, of nearly 2,000 students. If I can develop a plan to protect my school from falling victim once again to a drunk driving incident, maybe my plan can be used in other schools in my community and eventually state, nearby states, and ultimately my country.
In order to come up with a successful plan, we must think realistically. Understanding that although it may not be legal, moral, or safe, there are inevitably many underage high school and especially college students that drink. Instead of designing a plan to stop this underage drinking, I have developed one to distinctly protect them from drunk driving. At my school, as well as most others, there are many different clubs, teams, and organizations. My plan is to have each group assigned to a month, or four weekends, to be responsible for being that months 'designated drivers'. That is, volunteers from the group will publicly list their numbers somewhere easily accessible. If there is anyone in a situation where either they have no ride, or see an intoxicated friend preparing to drive, they have a choice, an escape route, a safe way home. They can call the number and be picked up, no questions asked. The reason I say that there will be no circumstances, is because I do not wish for anyone to be put in danger and defer a safe ride merely because they do not want to suffer more consequences. Instead of having penalties for those who chose to call, I plan to attempt to have my school provide a mandatory session on the effects of underage drinking and driving every two months.
There is no perfect plan to entirely wipe out drunk driving. There are, however, ways to wipe away the zeros at the end of 17,000. Yes, my plan may be flawed, but we must begin somewhere. We must act now, as numbers are only rising. In order to make a significant affect, we must make this plan spread. Spread to nearby schools, Universities, and eventually, it is my expectation that this plan spreads throughout Ohio and beyond.
