mken
Driving
ueath 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
0
Muscular Coordination
0
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, some
17,000
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
2
1,
it’s
against the law
in
every
U.S.
state to drink alcohol.
There are good medical, psychological and
developmental reasons for these laws.
The obvious way to solve this highway safety problem
is
for
people never to drink alcohol and then drive. But
what
if
people do? How much is “too much”
if
the
driver 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:
0
The amount of alcohol consumed
0
The drinker’s body weight
The amount
of
food that is consumed beforc and
during drinking
0
The length
of
time
it
has taken the drinker to
consume the alcohol.
According to the American Medical Association, a
180-lb. (82 kg) person who drinks three 12-ounce
(355
ml) bottles of beer
in
an hour will end up
with
a
BAC of about
0.06
percent. The person would reach the
same BAC by drinking three 4-ounce
(I
20
ml)
glasses
of wine or three mixed drinks
if
each had
1
-
I
/2 ounces
(45
ml)
of
a
liquor like whiskey, gin or vodka.
4-3
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