1996 Chevrolet S10 Pickup Owner's Manual - Page 133

Drunken Driving Death and injury associated with drinking and driving is a national tragedy. It's the number contributor to one the highway death toll,claiming thousands of victims every year. Alcohol affects four things that anyone needs to drive a vehicle: Judgment 0 The obvious way to solve this highway safety problem is forpeople never to drink alcohol and thendrive. But what if people do? How muchis "too much" if the driver plans to drive? It's a lotless 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) someone of who is drinkingdepends upon four things: The amount of alcohol consumed 0 MuscularCoordination Vision Attentiveness. The drinker's body weight The amount of food that is consumed before and during drinking The length of time it has taken the drinkerto consume the alcohol. 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 recentyears, 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. Forpersons under 21, it's against the law in every U.S. state to drink alcohol. There are good medical, psychological and developmental reasons for these laws. According to the American Medical Association, a 180-lb. (82 kg) person whodrinks 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 reachthe same BAC by drinkingthree 4-ounce (120 ml) glasses of wine or three mixed drinks if each had 1-1/2ounces (45 ml) of a liquor like whiskey, or vodka. gin