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Rear-end collisions
are
about
the
most preventable of accidents. Yet they
are common. Allow enough following distance. It’s the best defensive
driving maneuver, in both city and rural driving. You never know when the
vehicle in front of you is going to brake or turn suddenly.
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, 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
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 180-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
(1
20
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.
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