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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
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Vision
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0
Attentiveness
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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
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The drinker’s body weight
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The amount of food that is consumed before and
during drinking
The length of time it has taken the drinker to
consume the alcohol
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