1995 GMC Sonoma Owner's Manual - Page 136

Assume that pedestrians or otherdrivers 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 every year. Alcohol affects four things that anyone needs to drive a vehicle: 0 0 0 Judgment Muscular Coordination Vision Attentiveness Police records show that almost half of all motor vehicle-related deaths involve alcohol. In most cases, thesedeaths 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 afterdrinking. 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 obvious way to solve this highway safety problem is for people never to drink alcohol and then drive. But what if people do? How much is "too much" if the driver plans to drive? It's 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) of someone who is drinking depends upon four things: 0 0 0 How much alcohol consumed The drinker's body weight The amount of food that is consumed before and during drinking The length of time it's taken the drinker to consume the alcohol 4-2