1997 Oldsmobile Aurora Owner's Manual - Page 179

Drunken Driving Death and injury associated with drinking driving is and a national tragedy. It's the number one contributorto the highway death toll, claiming thousands victims of every year. Alcohol affects four things that anyone needs to drive a vehicle: Judgment 0 Muscular Coordination Vision Attentiveness. 0 Police recordsshow that almosthalf of all motor vehicle-related deaths involve alcohol.In most cases, these deaths are result of someone who was drinking the and driving. In recent years, some 17,000 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. For persons under 2 1, it's against the law in every U.S. state to drink alcohol. There are good medical, psychologicaland 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 "toomuch" if the driver plans to drive? It's a lot less thanmany 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 The amount of alcohol consumed 0 The drinker's body weight 0 The amount of food that is consumed before and during drinking 0 The length of time it has taken the drinker to consume the alcohol. According to the American Medical Association, a 180-lb. (82 kg) person who drinks three 12-ounce (355 ml) bottles of beer in an hour will end up with a BAC of about 0.06 percent. Theperson would reach the same BAC by drinking three 4-ounce (120 ml) glasses of wine or three mixed drinks if each had 1-1/2 ounces (45 ml) of a liquor like whiskey, gin or vodka. 4-3