User Guide
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:
0
Judgment
0
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, 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:
The amount of alcohol consumed
0
The drinker’s body weight
0
The amount of food that
is
consumed before and
during drinking
consume the alcohol.
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
‘i
2-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.
4-3