1997 GMC Safari Owner's Manual - Page 179

Drunken Driving Death and injury associatedwith drinking and driving is a nationaltragedy. It's the number one contributorto the highway death toll, claiming thousands of victims every year. Alcohol affects four things that anyone to drive needs a vehicle: Judgment 0 The obvious way to solve thishighway safety problem is for peoplenever to drink alcoholand then drive. But what if people do? How much is "too much" if the driver plans to drive?It's a lotless than many might think. Although it dependson each person and situation, here is some general information on problem. the The Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of someone who is drinking depends upon four things: The amount of alcohol consumed 0 0 MuscularCoordination Vision Attentiveness. The drinker's body weight The amount of food that is consumed before and during drinking The length of time it has taken the drinker to consume the alcohol. Police records show that almost of all motor half vehicle-related deaths involve alcohol. In most cases, of these deaths are the result 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 after drinking. For persons under 2 1, it's against thelaw in every U.S. state to drink alcohol. There aregood medical, psychologicaland developmental reasons for these laws. 0 According to theAmerican Medical Association, a 180-lb. (82 kg) person who drinks three 12-ounce (355 ml) bottles of beer inan hour will end up with a BAC of about 0.06 percent. The person would reach the same BAC by drinking three 4-ounce (120ml) glasses of wine or three mixed d r i n k s if each had 1-112 ounces (45 ml) of a liquor like whiskey, gin or vodka. 4-3