Intoxication

Nothing has the potential to cause more tragedy and heartbreak than driving while intoxicated. Intoxication literally means "to poison yourself." Intoxication is the poisoning of the human system with alcohol or other drugs, creating excitement or stupefaction. This results in an impairment of judgment, reason, and psychomotor skills, all of which are essential to driving safely. Driving while under the influence of an intoxicant is the same as playing "Russian Roulette." There is a bullet in the chamber; and if it does not kill you one time, it most certainly will, eventually.
Would you ever drive knowing you were intoxicated? If your answer is "no," then pay close attention to the information contained next. It could save your life and the lives of others. If your answer was "Yes," then I hope that when you are injured or killed, it will be only you and not involve any innocent parties. Unfortunately, statistics suggest that in most alcohol-related collisions, the sad fact is that innocent others will be involved.

This section is intended to teach you how alcohol affects you and should motivate you to take the subject of "driving under the influence" seriously. The least of your concerns should be getting arrested, going to jail, and losing your license. Instead, you should be much more concerned with the very real possibility of killing innocent people and/or yourself!
The good thing is that drivers do appear to be getting the message. Since 1980, alcohol- and drug-related collisions have been decreasing. For example, in 1980, there were 51,901 people killed on our roads. At least 28,000 of those deaths were directly caused by alcohol and drug intoxication. In other words, 54 percent of those deaths could have been prevented. That means that 28,000 people would be alive to take care of their kids, enjoy their lives, and have the potential to contribute to our society. Remember, that is just one year! The good news is that in 1998, of the 41,471 deaths reported, only 15,935 were alcohol- and drug-related. However, the families of those killed derive little comfort from our statistics. The parent of a child run down by a drunk driver finds little joy in missing that child. When you are looking at almost 16,000 people killed, that is still far too many people dying. So, while the total number of fatalities is decreasing annually, alcohol and drug intoxication continues to cause traffic fatalities and injuries. As of 1998, drinking drivers were involved in 38% of U.S. fatal traffic crashes.

Killing someone while driving under the influence cannot be considered an accident. It can be and has been charged in the courts as murder. Injuring another person while driving under the influence is chargeable as a felony.

 

Alcohol

Regardless of what form it comes in - beer, wine, or distilled spirits - alcohol has the same effect. It is a central nervous system (CNS) depressant. CNS depressants retard the bodily functions controlled by the brain. This includes judgment, reason, memory, speech, muscle movement, and the emotional states that control muscle tension and movement. At low levels, the drinker feels more relaxed and less inhibited; he finds it easier to enjoy himself. Along with alcohol's depressant effects, it exaggerates personality traits by reducing the inhibitions controlling those traits. It is as if one part of the brain says, "Go for it," and the other part says, "Think about it." Alcohol puts the "think about it" part to sleep and allows only the "go for it" part to be dominant.

 

Alcohol and Driving

Alcohol has a more pronounced effect on novice drinkers, who have not yet developed a tolerance for it. The effects of drinking will occur sooner and be exaggerated when they appear. The mood you are in also affects the symptoms you gain from drinking. If you are extremely tense, it may take longer to notice the effect. It will have the same effect; it just takes longer to notice it. Since alcohol reduces inhibitions, strong emotion and alcohol can be dangerous. Getting intoxicated when you are very angry or depressed could have devastating consequences as you will do things you would not do when sober. How does alcohol cause collisions? As you drink, feeding the process of intoxication, the CNS depressant effects of alcohol begin to appear.

Impaired Vision: Depth perception is distorted, and pupillary response time is retarded (your pupils do not react to light as quickly). As a driver, you cannot judge distances as well, and lights may blind you.

Impaired Coordination: Muscular coordination is impaired, causing problems with coordinated movement. Steering, brake, and accelerator use is handicapped.
Impaired Judgment and Reason: Problem-solving and decision-making skills are adversely affected. Oddly enough, the intoxicated person often feels these skills are just fine, perhaps even enhanced. You are the last person to decide that you can still drive. When intoxicated, you do things you would not normally do and chance things you would not normally chance. These are dangerous characteristics for someone behind the wheel of a car.

Impaired Memory: Under the influence of alcohol, you forget where you are going and why you are going there. You forget appointments; you forget recent events. You forget how to drive safely and, in truth, could not drive safely even if you did remember.

Question: If I just kept drinking, what would happen?

Answer: You would die.

Motor functions would deteriorate, and consciousness would be impaired to the point of unconsciousness. If you drank enough prior to passing out, you would lapse into permanent unconsciousness. You would quit breathing. Respiratory functions would deteriorate so badly that you would die of oxygen starvation. Alcoholic intoxication is a toxic poisonous reaction. Remember what the word means. In-toxic-ation. The act of poisoning yourself.

 

Being Intoxicated is Not Funny

All of us have laughed at some comedian's portrayal of a drunk. But, believe me, being drunk is not funny. As stated, almost 16,000 people died in alcohol-related crashes in 1998. That figure represents 38 percent of all traffic fatalities. About 300,000 people are seriously injured each year in alcohol-related crashes.

Over half of those killed were drinking drivers. In 1998, 30 percent of all traffic fatalities occurred in crashes in which at least one driver or non-occupant had a BAC of 0.10% or greater. Seventy percent of the 12,456 people killed in such crashes were themselves intoxicated. Many believe that the drinking driver kills only others. The truth is that he kills himself, too. Sixty percent of all the people killed between the hours of midnight and four in the morning were killed in alcohol-related crashes. More than one-third (34 percent) of all pedestrians 16 years of age or older killed in traffic crashes in 1998 were intoxicated. If people dying does not motivate you to take the subject seriously, how about the fact that approximately twenty-five cents of every dollar you spend for automobile insurance goes to pay for damage done by drunk drivers?

 

How Do You Know When You've Had Enough?

How do you know when you've had too much? Asking someone intoxicated if he or she has had "enough" is a wasted effort. Most people do not have the judgment to make that decision once they are intoxicated. You are asking someone with impaired judgment and reason to use judgment and reason. Sort of foolish, isn't it? You need a standard for judging intoxication that is independent of your "feelings" when you have been drinking. That standard is "Blood Alcohol Content" (BAC). By understanding BAC, you can know when enough is enough.

Blood Alcohol Content (BAC)

Blood Alcohol Content is an indication of how many milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood (in milligrams percent) are in the body. In Virginia, a BAC of .08 is considered legally drunk. That means if you are driving with that concentration of alcohol in your blood, you are subject to arrest, fines, confinement, and/or loss of license. If you are under the age of twenty-one, you are considered legally drunk if your BAC is .02. In other words, since it is illegal for someone under the age of twenty-one to be drinking in the first place, the slightest trace of alcohol in his or her blood constitutes legal intoxication. To understand BAC, keep these standards in mind.

A standard drink of alcohol is:

• One-and-one-half ounces of liquor such as Bourbon, Scotch, Vodka, etc. (40% alcohol or 80-proof)
  
• One five-ounce glass of table wine (12% alcohol)
  
• One 12-ounce container of beer (5% alcohol)

Note: One standard drink of hard liquor is a "jigger," which is one-and-a-half ounces. Some table wines have more than the typical 12% alcohol, and some imported beers have higher alcohol content. A 12-ounce container of beer has the same amount of alcohol as a mixed drink made with one-and-a-half ounces of 80-proof liquor. Ten beers are the equivalent of ten standard mixed drinks!

 

Alcohol Absorption

Alcohol is the only ingested substance that undergoes no digestion. Once it is in your stomach, it is absorbed directly into the bloodstream. Time, body weight, and stomach contents affect absorption rates.

Time: Alcohol is a fuel the body burns up fairly quickly. But not quickly enough in many instances since drinkers underestimate the amount of time needed to burn the alcohol they have ingested. The liver is the organ responsible for burning alcohol, and, as you might already know, cirrhosis of the liver can be a side effect of alcoholism. In an adult male with good liver function, the liver can process approximately one ounce of alcohol an hour. The average rate of metabolism will metabolize 0.015% BAC per hour. This means that the average adult male body can dissipate one drink in about one-and-one-quarter hours. For the average adult female it takes about one-and-one-half hours to dissipate one standard drink. So, theoretically, if you are male and have one standard drink of alcohol at 7:00 p.m., your blood alcohol at 8:15 p.m. will be 0.00. For an average woman it will take until 8:30 p.m.

Body Size: Another important factor in your blood alcohol content is your body size. Body mass and blood volume affect the amount of alcohol in a person's bloodstream and therefore the time it takes for a person to feel the effects of alcohol. In general, the bigger you are, the more alcohol you can consume. If a 200-pound person and a 100-pound person drink the same amount of alcohol in the same time period, the smaller person will become intoxicated quite a bit before the larger person.

Stomach Content: Since alcohol has to be absorbed to have an effect, anything slowing the absorption will slow the effect. Taking alcohol on an empty stomach guarantees an almost immediate effect as the alcohol hits the blood and quickly goes to the brain. Here, it initiates its effects. "Don't drink on an empty stomach" is good advice. However, just because the food is slowing absorption, do not mislead yourself to think it is preventing absorption. The effects of alcohol you drink on a full stomach will be the same. It will just take a little longer.

Small amounts of alcohol are eliminated through sweat, breath, and urine leaving the body unchanged as alcohol; but the main way the body disposes of alcohol is through chemically breaking it down. This process occurs at a steady metabolic rate, and nothing hastens it. Nothing. Not cold showers, exercise, or hot coffee. If you give a drunk coffee hoping the caffeine will sober him, all you will have is a wide-awake drunk.

Although this concept is difficult in some circles, any alcohol before driving should be avoided. Protect yourself and others, if you will be drinking, don't drive or use a designated driver. And consider being a designated driver yourself!