Drunken
Death and injury associated with drinking and driving is
a national tragedy. It’s the number one contributor to
the highway death toll, claiming thousands of victims
every year.
Alcohol affects four things that anyone needs to
drive a vehicle:
Judgment
Muscular Coordination
Vision
Attentiveness.
Police records show that almost half of all motor
vehicle-related deaths involve alcohol. In most cases,
these deaths are the result of someone who was
drinking and driving. In recent years, more than
16,000
annual motor vehicle-related deaths have been
associated with the use of alcohol, with more than
300,000
people injured.
Many adults
-
by
some estimates, nearly half the adult
population
-
choose never to drink alcohol,
so
they
never drive after drinking. For persons under
21,
it’s against the law in every
US.
state to drink alcohol.
There are good medical, psychological and
developmental reasons for these laws.
The obvious way to eliminate the leading highway
safety problem is for people never to drink alcohol
and then drive. But what
if
people do? How much is
“too much”
if
someone plans to drive? It’s a lot less than
many might think. Although it depends on each person
and situation, here is some general information on
the
problem.
The
Blood
Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of someone
who is drinking depends upon four things:
The amount of alcohol consumed
0
The drinker’s body weight
0
The amount of food that is consumed before and
during drinking
0
The
Ipngth
nf
time
it
h9-s
tg.ken
the
drinker
tn
consume the alcohol.
4-3
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