Which gender is more likely to drive after drinking?
Uploaded by delayniejayne on May 07, 2000
Introduction
Last year a student from my high school was killed in a drunk driving accident. As shocking as the death was for many students, people still continued to drive while intoxicated. This year two of my close friends received DUI's and numerous people I have encountered have also been convicted of Driving Under the Influence. Working at a local bar, it is very seldom that I see a person choosing to remain sober because they "have to drive", and I began to wonder which gender was more likely to drive after consuming alcohol.
I hypothesize that men are more likely to drive after consuming alcoholic beverages than women. I have decided this for several reasons, the primary one being that when on a date, usually the male drives.
Research
I began my research on the Internet, and found several very useful sights. MADD (mothers against drunk driving) had some fairly new statistics regarding alcohol consumption and driving. I also visited the National Clearinghouse for Drugs and Alcohol, and the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. While reviewing some statistics regarding fatal accidents related to alcohol, I noticed that California had a very high number of deaths-second only to Texas (this number did not reflect the percentage of the population-with this in mind, Nevada and Texas had the largest percents). With this in mind I investigated the current laws regarding alcohol consumption and driving.
Currently, the law in California declares a person to be legally intoxicated if their blood alcohol content is .08% or greater (this law of course is different for minors). The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services define a standard drink as 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits.
Method
I decided to Survey 50 people, 25 men and 25 women. Although laws prohibit people under 21 from consuming alcohol, I chose to survey people 16 years and older simply because I know that many minors do drink and drive. In order to get a more representative sample, I decided not to survey at CSUSM but at the mall where my sample population would consist of people other than students. Before handing people the survey I asked them two simple questions: Are you a licensed driver? and Do...