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Drunk Driving
WARNING
Drinking and then driving is very
dangerous. Your reflexes,
perceptions, attentiveness, and
judgment can be affected by even
a small amount of alcohol. You
can have a serious
fatal
collision if you drive after
drinking. Do not drink and drive or
ride with a driver who has been
drinking. Ride home in a cab; or if
you are with a group, designate a
driver who will not drink.
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
or even
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
Driving and Operating
that when anyone who has been
drinking
driver or passenger
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
Adding non dealer accessories can
affect vehicle performance. See
.
9-3
is
.
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