Driving and Operating 9-3
Death and injury associated with
drinking and driving is a global
tragedy.
Alcohol affects four things that
anyone needs to drive a vehicle:
judgment, muscular coordination,
vision, and attentiveness.
Police records show that
almost 40 percent 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, more than
17,000 annual motor vehicle-related
deaths have been associated with
the use of alcohol, with about
250,000 people injured.
For persons under 21, it is 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 eliminate the
leading highway safety problem is
for people never to drink alcohol
and then drive.
Medical research shows that
alcohol in a person's system
can make crash injuries worse,
especially injuries to the brain,
spinal cord, or heart. This means
that when anyone who has been
drinking — driver or passenger — is
in a crash, that person's chance of
being killed or permanently disabled
is higher than if the person had not
been drinking.
Control of a Vehicle
The following three systems
help to control the vehicle while
driving — brakes, steering, and
accelerator. At times, as when
driving on snow or ice, it is easy to
ask more of those control systems
than the tires and road can provide.
Meaning, you can lose control of the
vehicle. See StabiliTrak
®
System on
page 9‑67.
Adding non‐dealer accessories can
affect vehicle performance. See
Accessories and Modifications on
page 10‑3.
Braking
See Brake System Warning Light on
page 5‑27.
Braking action involves perception
time and reaction time. Deciding to
push the brake pedal is perception
time. Actually doing it is
reaction time.
Average reaction time is about
three‐fourths of a second. But that is
only an average. It might be less
with one driver and as long as two
or three seconds or more with
another. Age, physical condition,
alertness, coordination, and
eyesight all play a part. So do
alcohol, drugs, and frustration.
But even in three‐fourths of a
second, a vehicle moving at
100 km/h (60 mph) travels 20 m
(66 ft). That could be a lot of
distance in an emergency, so
keeping enough space between
the vehicle and others is important.
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