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, 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:
The amount of alcohol consumed
0
The drinker’s body weight
0
The amount
of
food that
is
consumed before and
during drinking
0
The length
of
time
it
has taken the drinker
to
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