4-4
Defensive driving requires that a driver concentrate on
the driving task. Anything that distracts from the driving
task -- such as concentrating on a cellular telephone call,
reading, or reaching for something on the floor
-- makes
proper defensive driving more difficult and can even
cause a collision, with resulting injury. Ask a passenger to
help do things like this, or pull off the road in a safe place
to do them yourself. These simple defensive driving
techniques could save your life.
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:
D
Judgment
D
Muscular Coordination
D
Vision
D
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, about 16,000 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 the leading 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:
D
The amount of alcohol consumed
D
The drinker’s body weight
D
The amount of food that is consumed before and
during drinking
D
The length of time it has taken the drinker to
consume the alcohol.
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