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
0
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
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:
How much alcohol consumed
0
The drinker’s body weight
The amount of food that is consumed before and
during drinking
The length
of
time it’s taken the drinker to consume
the alcohol
According to the American Medical Association,
a
I
80-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
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