1997 Pontiac Grand Prix Owner's Manual - Page 197

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: Judgment 0 The obvious way to solve thishighway 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 than many might think. Although it depends on each person and situation, here issome general information on the problem. The Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of someone who is drinking depends upon four things: The amount of alcohol consumed The drinker's body weight The amount of food that is consumed before and during drinking 0 Muscular Coordination Vision Attentiveness. 0 Police records show that almost half of all motor The length of time it has taken the drinker to vehicle-related deaths involvealcohol. In most cases, these deaths are the result of someone who was drinking 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 afterdrinking. For persons under 2 1, it's against the law in every US.state to drink alcohol. There are good medical, psychological and developmental reasons for these laws. consume the alcohol. According to theAmerican Medical Association, a 180-lb. (82 kg)person who drinks three12-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 three4-ounce ( 120 ml) glasses of wine or three mixed drinks if each had 1-112 ounces (45 ml) of a liquor likewhiskey, gin or vodka.