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
0
Muscular Coordination
0
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
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:
0
The amount of alcohol consumed
0
The drinker’s body weight
0
The amount of food that is consumed before and
0
The length of time it has taken the drinker to
during drinking
consume the alcohol.
According
to
the American Medical Association, a
180-lb. (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
(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
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