1998 Pontiac Firebird Owner's Manual - Page 172

Drunken Driving The obvious way to solve this highway safety problem is for people never to drink alcohol and then drive. But Death and injury associated with drinking and driving a is what if people do? How much is "too much"if the national tragedy. It's the number one contributor to the driver plansto drive? It's a lot less than many might highway death toll, claiming thousands of victims everythink. Although it depends on each person and situation, year. Alcohol affectsfour things that anyone needs to drive here is some generalinformation on the problem. a vehicle: The Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC)of someone Judgment who is drinking depends upon things: four 0 MuscularCoordination 0 The amount of alcohol consumed 0 Vision The drinker's body weight Attentiveness. 0 The amount of food that is consumed before and Police records show that almost half motor of all during drinking vehicle-related deaths involve alcohol. most cases, In 0 The length of time it has taken the drinker to these deaths are the resultof someone whowas drinking consume the alcohol. and driving. In recent years, over 17,000 annual motor been associated with the use vehicle-related deaths have According tothe American Medical Association, a of alcohol, with more than 300,000 people injured. 180-lb. (82 kg) person who drinks three 12-ounce (355 ml) bottles of beer inan hour will end up with a Many adults -- by some estimates, nearly half the BAC of about 0.06 percent. The person would reach the adult population-- choose never todrink alcohol, same BAC by drinking three 4-ounce (120 ml) glasses so they never drive after drinking. For persons under of wine or three mixed drinks each had 1-1/2 ounces if 21, it's againstthe law in every U.S. state to drink (45 ml) of a liquor like whiskey, gin or vodka. alcohol. Thereare good medical, psychological and developmental reasonsfor these laws. 4-3