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
0
Muscular Coordination
0
Vision
Attentiveness.
Police records show that almost half of
all
motor
vehcle-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
The amount of
food
that is consumed before and
during drinking
consume the alcohol.
0
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 liquor like whiskey, gin or vodka.
To Next Page
Loading...
