Letter to a friend

Dear Friend,
This letter is to inform you of a major issue going on here at UCF. It is an issue that puts student’s lives at risk every time they do it. Of course I’m talking about drinking and driving. Drinking and driving is becoming a bigger issue with students as they feel that it’s not a big deal. I’ve been observing this by going to clubs and bars and when I left I would look at who was driving and it would be someone that was intoxicated. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I realized how many students were doing this. It wasn’t just one or two; it was mostly everyone at that bar. One of the nights that I had gone out, I went up to one of the intoxicated drivers and I ask him why he was driving, he simply responded saying,” leave me alone dude, I can’t afford a cab”. That’s was when I realized that UCF is not doing much to protect their students. The UCF cops are very strict but I still don’t believe that they influence anyone. The few students that get caught drinking and driving on campus just get a 6 month suspension to their license and no criminal record or DUI. I know this from personal experience. One of my friends got pulled over on campus and he got his license suspended for six months. He blew almost twice as much as the legal limit and he was also underage. After two months he got his license back with no criminal record on his record. Is that going to stop him from drinking and driving? I don’t think so. What about the people around him? Maybe when he first got in trouble they stopped but after a couple of weeks they got right back to it. Drinking and driving not only puts the driver’s life at risk but also the community. I’m not saying that if you drink and drive you are going to go kill someone, you might be driving safe. But, just the fact that drinking and driving vastly increases your chances of getting into an accident should be enough for the intoxicated driver to decide not to drive. You can try to blame their parents for not educating them enough, but most of the time the parents are so gullible and either believe that their underage kids don’t drink, and if they do drink most of them believe that they wouldn’t get under the wheel if they were to drink. Therefore, I believe that the university needs to step up and do something to protect their students. I personally have being involved in a situation where no one could drive from being intoxicated and we couldn’t find a cab or any source of transportation around UCF, what does that force you to do? Drink and drive. Of course, there are those who just say you shouldn’t be drinking in the first place, but the fact that there are so many minors drinking and driving it also puts that person’s life at risk.

Sincerely,
Pablo Quiroga