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
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, over
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
The drinker’s body weight
0
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
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
(1
20
ml)
glasses
of wine or three mixed drinks if each
had
1
-
112
ounces
(45
ml) of a liquor like whiskey, gin or vodka.
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