Drunken
Driving
Death
and
injury associated
with
drinlung and driving is
a nationaI 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
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 ta 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
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
m1)
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
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