1995 Buick Riviera Owner's Manual - Page 147

Drunken Driving Death and injury associated with drinking and driving is a national tragedy. It's the number contributor to the one 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 tosolve this highway safety problem is for people never to drink alcohol and then drive. But what if people do? How muchis "too much" if the driver plans todrive? 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) someone of who is drinking depends upon four things: How much alcohol consumed 0 Muscular Coordination Vision Attentiveness The drinker's body weight The amount of food that is consumed before and during drinking Police records show thatalmost 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 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 after drinking. For persons under 21, it's against the lawin every U.S. state to drink alcohol. There are good medical, psychological and developmental reasonsfor these laws. 0 The length of time it has taken the drinker to consume the alcohol According to the American Medical Association, a 180-pound (82 kg) person whodrinks three 12-ounce (355 ml) bottles of beer in an will end up with hour a BAC of about 0.06 percent. The person would reach the same BAC by drinking three 4-ounce (120 ml) glasses of wine or three mixed drinksif each had 1- 112 ounces (45 ml) of a liquor like whiskey, ginor vodka. 4-2