Drunken
Driving
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
0
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
18,000
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
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:
The
amount
of
alcohol consumed
The drinker’s body weight
The amount
of
food that is consumed before and
during drinking
consume the alcohol
The length of time it has taken the drinker to
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
(120
ml)
glasses
of wine or three mixed drinks if each had
1-1/2
ounces
(45
ml)
of
a Iiquor like whiskey, gin or vodka.
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