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:
0
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
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:
How much alcohol consumed
0
The drinker’s body weight
The amount
of
food that is consumed before and
The length
of
time it has taken the drinker to
during drinking
consume the alcohol
According to the American Medical Association, a
180-pound (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 liquor like whiskey, gin or vodka.
4-2
To Next Page
Loading...
