Drunken DrivingDeath and injury associated with drinking anddriving is a national tragedy. It is the numberone contributor to the highway death toll,claiming thousands of victims every year.Alcohol affects four things that anyone needs todrive a vehicle:• Judgment• Muscular Coordination• Vision• AttentivenessPolice records show that almost half of all motorvehicle-related deaths involve alcohol. In mostcases, these deaths are the result of someone whowas drinking and driving. In recent years, morethan 16,000 annual motor vehicle-related deathshave been associated with the use of alcohol, withmore than 300,000 people injured.Many adults — by some estimates, nearly halfthe adult population — choose never to drinkalcohol, so they never drive after drinking.For persons under 21, it is against the law inevery U.S. state to drink alcohol. There are goodmedical, psychological, and developmentalreasons for these laws.The obvious way to eliminate the leading highwaysafety problem is for people never to drinkalcohol and then drive. But what if people do?How much is “too much” if someone plansto drive? It is 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) ofsomeone who is drinking depends uponfour things:• The amount of alcohol consumed• The drinker’s body weight• The amount of food that is consumed beforeand during drinking• The length of time it has taken the drinker toconsume the alcohol289
