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Your Driving and the Road
I
Defensive Driving
The best advice anyone can give about
driving is: Drive defensively.
Please start with a very important safety
device in your Pontiac: Buckle up.
(See "Safety Belts" in the Index.)
Defensive driving really means "be ready
for anything." On city streets, rural roads,
or freeways, it means "always expect the
unexpected."
Assume that pedestrians or other drivers
are going to be careless and make
mistakes. Anticipate what they might
do. Be ready for their mistakes.
Rear-end collisions are about the most
preventable of accidents. Yet they are
common. Allow enough following
distance. It's the best defensive driving
maneuver, in both city and rural driving.
You never know when the vehicle in front
of you is going to brake or turn suddenly.
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
:very year. Alcohol takes away three
:hings that anyone needs to drive a
vehicle:
Judgment
Muscular Coordination
Vision
Police records show that almost half of
all motor vehicle-related deaths involve
alcohol
-
a driver, a passenger or
someone else, such as a pedestrian, had
been drinking. In most cases, these
deaths are the result of someone who
was drinking and driving. About 20,000
motor vehicle-related deaths occur each
year because of alcohol, and thousands
of people are injured.
Just how much alcohol is too much if a
person plans to drive? Ideally, no one
should drink alcohol and then drive. But
if one does, then what's "too much"? It
can be 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 Content (BAC) of
Gomeone who is drinking depends upon
Four things:
How much alcohol is in the drink.
The drinker's body weight.
The amount of food that is consumed
before and during drinking.
The length of time it has taken the
drinker to consume the alcohol.
.
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