1996 Chevrolet Astro Owner's Manual - Page 140

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 isa national tragedy. It's the number one contributor to the highway death toll, claiming thousands of victims every year. Alcohol affects fourthings that anyone needs to drive a vehicle: Judgment Muscular Coordination Vision Attentiveness Police recordsshow that almost half of all motor vehicle-related deaths involve alcohol. In most cases, these deaths arethe 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 drinkalcohol, so they never drive afterdrinking. For persons under 21, it's against the law in every U.S. state todrink alcohol. There aregood medical, psychological and developmental reasons for these laws. The obvious way to solve this highway safety problem is for people never to drink alcoholand then drive.But what if people do? How much is "too much" if the driverplans 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: 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 According to the American Medical Association, a 180-pound (82kg) 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. The person would reach the same BAC by drinking three 4-ounce(1 20 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. 4-2