Critical Analysis on “Drunk Driving Across the Globe: Let’s Learn from One Another”

Barron H Lerner’s article, Drunk Driving Across the Globe: Let’s Learn from One Another, Lerner is trying to tell his audience that all the nations should get together and share each other’s tactics to preventing drunk driving. He opens his article by telling the reader a horrific example of how a twelve-year-old girl was run over by a drunk driver on Halloween night while she was trick-or-treating (Lerner 1870). By stating this, he interests the readers and makes them want to read more. He then goes on to saying that if all the countries listen to each other and use each other’s ways of preventing drunk driving, the percentage of intoxicated drivers in general would go down.

Lerner’s thesis is that countries are coming up with great ways to prevent intoxicated driving, but they are not listening to others’ ideas and using those to make their ideas even better. He states, “Why do different countries address drunk driving differently? Can we use the knowledge to save more lives elsewhere?” (Lerner 1870). Lerner uses many examples of different countries’ ways of drunk driving prevention to support his overall thesis. These examples include Erik Wildmark, a Swedish physiologist, who invented a method of measuring alcohol in one’s system by using that person’s blood. England changed the phrase “drunk driving” to “drink driving,” making it known that one does not have to be considered drunk for it to be illegal to drive. This reduced the alcohol-related injuries and fatalities by two-thirds in the first three months. Another example is Norway’s “per say” law which was passed in 1936. This makes it so anyone driving with a blood alcohol level of 0.05% (50mg/dl) or higher gets pulled and breathalyzed. They will be punished with such things as imprisonment (Lerner 1870-1871). Lerner’s thesis is clearly stated throughout this article, and he cites numerous facts to support it. For example, in his third paragraph, Lerner states, “rather than use these [drunk driving prevention] devices to encourage uniformity, different countries established very different limits” (1870).

Barron H Lerner studied at Mailman School of Public Health in Columbia University, New York, New York, so he studied a lot about how drunk driving affects the public and how it needs to be stopped. Speaking to people all over the world, Lerner writes to anyone who will take the time to listen. His topic and thesis is one that if it is spread worldwide, and if countries actually listen to one another for advice, could overall prevent the percentage of drunk driving accidents and fatalities. So Lerner really wants everyone to read the article in order for this information to be well known and have something done about it. He tells the reader, “Politics and culture will always dictate which strategies are acceptable in various countries. But we should look to our neighbors and try to adopt their best practices” (Lerner 1871). He is writing about this day and age, being written on May 19, 2012. These days, a drunk driving accident is very common to hear about in the news, so Lerner wants the countries now to help each other out and overall minimize the intoxicated driving. Since he is writing in a present time period, it relates more to the reader. These facts are true to this time, and if the world unites as one to ban this from happening, it could very easily be prevented.

            Lerner’s style is very informative about his thesis. He practically writes his whole article on facts about different countries’ ways of alcohol-related accidents preventions. Lerner informs the reader in the very first paragraph, “measures to control drunk driving, established in nearly every country to prevent the exact type of event, vary widely in their extent, application, and acceptance” (1870). He wants to inform the reader right away that the countries all have different ways of approaching the drinking and driving problem.  Although his style is very informative, this does not stop him from having a simpler language. The simplicity of the general style makes the article easier to read so a broader audience can read the piece and the message can be more widely understood. The article has an eager tone, showing that the author really wants the reader to read and do something about his thesis. Lerner starts the article off with a very serious story about the little girl being hit by a drunk driver on Halloween (1870). His eagerness is shown because he knows that the reader will be drawn in by this story, exactly what he wants.

The essay is divided into multiple paragraphs, all of which are informing the reader about all the countries’ attempts to prevent drunk driving and how effective they have been. Lerner groups them together with others that relate to one another. One paragraph is about scientists all around the world inventing ways of testing one’s blood alcohol level. Another paragraph is about the countries choosing and/or lowering their accepted blood alcohol levels. For example, the United States of America set theirs to 0.15%. Lerner goes on by writing, “although impaired drivers with levels between 0.05% and 0.15% could also potentially be arrested for drunk driving, in practice very few such individuals were convicted or had their license revoked” (1870). These are a few examples of how Lerner organizes his paragraphs. One could assume that the article’s structure is problem-solution, problem being the introductory paragraph about drinking and driving, and solution being all the other paragraphs about the countries banning together to solve to overall problem.

In the conclusion of this article, Lerner rephrases his point of the essay, as a conclusion should, and writes that there are many devices used in different countries to prevent drunk driving, but this prevention would be more efficient if the countries teamed together and used one another’s practices, they would be even more efficient. He then goes back to the story about the little trick-or-treater, stating, “A death like that of Faith Monet Love is a tragedy-a preventable tragedy-in whatever country” (Lerner 1871). Stating this, it pulls the paper together and reminds the reader of the personal aspect as to why the countries need to ban together, and more importantly, why drunk driving needs to be prevented.