Owner's Manual
It’s the amount of alcohol that counts. For example,
if
the same person drank three double martinis
(3
ounces
or
90
ml of liquor each) within
an
hour, the person’s
BAC would be close to
0.12
percent. A person who
consumes food just before or during drinking will have a
somewhat lower BAC level.
There is a gender difference, too. Women generally have
a
lower relative percentage
of
body water than men.
Since alcohol is carried in body water, this means that a
woman generally will reach a higher BAC level than a
man of her same body weight when each has the same
number
of
drinks.
The law in many
U.S.
states sets the legal limit at a BAC
of
0.10
percent. In a growing number
of
U.S.
states, and
throughout Canada, the limit is
0.08
percent. In some
other countries, it’s even lower. The BAC limit for all
commercial drivers in the United States
is
0.04
percent.
The BAC will be over
0.10
percent after three to six
drinks (in one hour).
Of
course, as we’ve
seen,
it
depends on how much alcohol is in the drinks, and how
quickly the person drinks them.
But the ability to drive
is
affected well below a BAC of
0.10
percent. Research shows that the driving skills of
many people are impaired at a BAC approaching
0.05
percent, and that the effects are worse at night. All
drivers are impaired at BAC levels above
0.05
percent.
Statistics show that the chance
of
being in a collision
increases sharply for drivers who have a BAC of
0.05
percent or above. A driver with
a
BAC level of
0.06
percent has doubled his
or
her chance of having a
collision. At a BAC level of
0.10
percent, the chance
of
this driver having a collision is 12 times greater; at a
level of 0.15 percent, the chance is
25
times greater!
The body takes about an hour to rid itself of the alcohol
in one drink.
No
amount
of
coffee or number of cold
showers will speed that up. “I’ll
be
careful” isn’t the
right answer. What
if
there’s an emergency, a need
to
take sudden action,
as
when a child darts into the street?
A person with even a moderate BAC might not be able
to
react quickly enough to avoid the collision.
There’s something else about drinking and driving that
many people don’t know. 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.
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