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Drunken Driving
The obvious way to solve this highway safety problem
is for people never to drink alcohol and then drive. But
Death and injury associated with drinking and driving
what if people do? How much is "too much" if the
I
is a national Itragedy. It's the number one contributor to
driver plans to drive? It's a lot less than many might
i
the highway death toll, claiming thousands of victims
,
think. Although it depends on each person and situation,
every year.
here is some general information on the problem.
Alcohol affects four things that anyone needs to drive
a vehicle:
Judgment
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 18,000 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 Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of someone
who is drinking depends upon four things:
The amount of alcohol consumed
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
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.
consume the alcohol.
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