How could this happen to me:
Meaning that people don’t always deserve the things that happen to them.
Many innocent people lose their lives or become injured because of other
people’s actions.
The song Untitled,
by Simple Plan sends out a strong message by starting out with a slow, quiet
piano melody playing and immediately changing to the same piano melody but much
louder at the lyrics: how could this happen to me. By changing the volume,
Simple Plan is highlighting the message of their song that drunk driving
doesn’t only affect the driver but also the innocent people on the roads. This
rock song takes a slower approach to emphasize the feelings of depression, and
sad emotions that Simple Plan wants the audience to feel.
Simple Plan wrote
this song because of a drunk driving accident that had happened with a good
friend of theirs from high school. They show their emotion through the lyrics
and music video of this song. The music video highlights the decision to do
right or wrong, be selfish or selfless through the use of a drunk driving accident.
The video shows a head on collision between a male drunk driver and an innocent
women driver around the same age, resulting in the woman’s death, and the man
living and being taken away in hand-cuffs by officers. Also the video shows a
family doing normal activities such as: a male high school student playing
video games, a mom cleaning dishes, a dad working, and a female high school
student doing homework in her room. Then each family member is shown being
thrown into the wall simultaneously as the cars collide. Simple Plan incorporates the
family into the video to show how drunk driving not only affects the people in
the crash, but also the family members of the people in the accident. Simple
Plan wants to encourage the message not to drink and drive, and makes that
clear throughout their music video.
The
video speaks to many people who have family members or friends who have been
affected by drunk driving accidents. Simple Plan stated in an interview that
they wrote this song because a friend they knew in high school was killed in a
drunk driving accident. Not only does it show the effect a drunk driver has on
responsible people in the other vehicle, but also how it affects their family. The family being thrown into the walls is such a touching point in the video. It really reaches out to show the audience that families are impacted by
these loses of their innocent family members.
And I can't erase the things that I've done:
From the drunk driver’s perspective: once you’ve taken somebody’s life
for your own selfish actions there is no way of taking that back.
WHY?
People know that drinking and driving aren’t good for you. They’ve heard the
lecture throughout all of their years at school, from parents, and other adult
figures, so why do they do it anyways? There has been research done to see if
there is a link between a person’s personality and drunk driving. Personality
traits that have been studied that increase the likelihood of a person guilty
of drunk driving are: sensation seeking, risk-taking/rule-breaking,
impulsivity, and alcohol related problems. An experiment was done to see how
likely a person was to drink and drive based on their socio-economic data,
alcohol consumption, and smoking habits. The studies results below shows that
80% of drunk drivers had significantly more alcohol related problems, frequent
smokers, and health-behavior measures. (Eensoo).
Group 1: control subjects
who denied driving after drinking
Group 2: control
subjects who reported driving after drinking
DWI: police-referred
drunk drivers who denied driving after drinking
DWII: police-referred
drunk drivers who reported driving after drinking.
Around 13,000 people are killed each year in alcohol
related accidents. In the chart below we see that 82% of automobile accidents
are related to drunk driving.
Other statistics
show that men are twice as likely to drink and drive than women are, 50-75% of
drunk drivers continue to drive on suspended licenses, and everyday 28 people
die in America because of drunk driving("MADD").
One of the reasons drunk driving is so
dangerous is because drunk drivers have a sense of not being able to get
injured. Their judgment is impaired so they participate in even more illegal
activities such as not wearing a seatbelt, going way faster than the speed
limit, and swerving in and out of lanes.
The night
goes on, as I'm fading away:
Everyone’s lives are still going on,
even though the innocent person has lost his or hers. The lives of his/her
family members, and friends will be affected by this tragic accident.
How
do we get around this? Everyone is entitled to make their own decisions, and
people may continue to make the wrong decisions. Unfortunately drunk driving is
very hard to eliminate once and for all, but everyone could help make a
difference. If someone has integrity, and a strong character they are more
likely to be able to say no to getting into a car with a drunk driver, or to take
their friends keys away. Having a strong personality gives a person the
confidence to do the right thing, and convinces others to do the right thing as
well.
Many
people, especially teenagers, have been put into a situation where they could
choose to make the right decision or wrong decision. Even I have experience a
time where I was put in a situation to get into a car with a drunk driver or
not to. It was senior year, and I was going to the UMASS meet up in NYC with a
friend from home. He had driven to the train station, and said he was not going
to drink at the meet up. Next think I knew, we were there at the meet-up and of
course he was drinking. I didn’t want him to feel offended that I didn’t feel comfortable enough to get into the car with him going home from the train station, and felt like I
was put in a very awkward situation. I had texted my boyfriend at the time, who
immediately said he was going to pick me up from the train station. I tried to
convince my friend that my boyfriend would drive him home too, and I would drive
him to pick up his car the next morning. Unfortunately I couldn’t convince him,
but I was thankful he got home safely and didn’t injure anyone in the process
of driving home. Even though nothing happened I am still very proud of myself
for getting myself out of that situation, and trying to get him out of it too.
Fitting in, peer
pressure, or to impress somebody, are reasons why people get in the car, or
participate with drunk drivers. A way we could stop this is to show people it’s
not cool to put yourself in a life-threatening situation.
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