Young people often want to rebel at some point. You rarely have a teenager who gets all the way through those formative years without lashing out at their parents in some way. This is natural.

A teen will want to test how far they can push against authority. They might drive their parents a little crazy during this time, but hopefully, they will not do anything too foolish or reckless.

Some teens try alcohol. If they drink at a party, maybe they’ll throw up and have a hangover the next day, but that’s not the worst thing in the world. If they decide to drive after drinking, that can have much more severe consequences.

Let’s look at what some of those can be.

The Underage Individual Might Get in an Accident

A teenager might have just gotten their driver’s license. Maybe if you’re that teen’s parent, you decided to give them your hand-me-down vehicle if you have an older one with a bunch of miles on it. Your teen can use that car to get to and from school, or a part-time job, if they have one.

If they decide to consume alcohol and drive, they have not been driving legally for very long. They will not have had much experience yet. They also don’t know anything about drinking, so they won’t know their tolerance.

That’s a sure accident recipe. If that happens, your teen might cause a ton of damage. Some experts say that an underage DUI can cost a teen at least $40,000 over the next decade.

The Underage Person Might Hurt Themselves, or Someone Else

If a teen drinks and then drives, they might crash. If it happens, you’d hope that they might only hit an inanimate object. A single-car crash isn’t ideal, but at least it’s not too likely the teen will hurt someone that way.

However, the teen might also hit another car. If that happens, they might hurt themselves, the other driver, or both. They might injure one of their passengers or one of the other vehicle’s passengers.

They also could hit a cyclist, a pet, or a pedestrian. Any of these situations could prove fatal. If a teen injures or kills someone while driving drunk, they can expect a major lawsuit to come their way.

If that happens, the teen might need to come up with a lot of money if they end up on the lawsuit’s losing end. A wrongful death suit can easily cost them millions. They might have to pay for their mistake for the rest of their life.

The Underage Individual Might Need to Attend Alcohol Counseling

If you have a teen or someone under the legal drinking age who gets in a car accident, they might not hurt anyone too badly. That’s probably the best they can hope for in that scenario.

They will live to learn from their mistake, and one thing a court might instruct them to do is attend alcohol counseling sessions. Their school might have them, or they could attend some that serve the community. There, they can learn how serious drinking and driving is, and they can understand how wrong they were to consume alcohol and get behind the wheel.

A judge might also order them to complete some community service hours. This is probably the best thing for them. It’s a way for them to give back to the community, and it should also teach them to think twice before making the same mistake again.

This sort of issue could get even worse if your youngster finds themselves banned from driving as the result of their road crimes. If they need to drive for work, they will need a hardship license attorney to help them change the type of ban that they have and enable them to drive for specific reasons. In many cases, though, the underage person will have to retake their test.

The Underage Person Might Die

An underage person killing themselves by drinking and driving is one of the most distressing things that can happen. These incidents do occur all around the country every year, though.

Maybe the underage person has an alcohol problem, and they also have a ready supply. They might have a relative who gets it for them, or perhaps they are stealing it from somewhere. Most individuals can get their hands on some alcohol if they set their minds to it.

If this underage person drinks and then tries to drive, maybe they don’t obey the speed limit. Perhaps something distracts them while they’re in the car. They might answer the phone or try to text their friend, and maybe they’ll run a red light or make an unsafe turn.

If they die, their family will mourn them, but they’ll also understand that their loved one made a deadly mistake. They should have realized how serious drinking and driving was.