Owner's Manual

Table Of Contents
There is a gender difference, too. Women generally have a lower relative
percentage
of
body
water than men. Since alcohol is carried
in
body
water, this means that a woman generally
will
reach
a
higher
BAC
level
than a man of her same
body
weight when each
has
the same number
of
drinks.
The
law
in
many
US.
states sets the legal
limit
at a
BAC
of
0.10
percent.
In
a growing number
of
U.S.
states, and throughout Canada, the
limit
is
0.08
percent.
In
some other countries it’s even lower. The
BAC
limit
for
all
commercial drivers
in
the
US.
is
0.04 percent.
The
BAC
will
be over
0.10
percent after three to six drinks (in one hour).
Of
course,
as
we’ve seen,
it
depends
on
how
much alcohol
is
in
the drinks,
and
how
quickly the person drinks them.
Hut
the ability to drive
is
affected
well
below
a
BAC
of
0.10
percent.
Research shows that the driving skills of
many
people
are
impaired
at
a
BAC
approaching
0.05
percent, and that the effects are worse at night.
Ail
drivers are impaired at
BAC
levels above 0.05 percent. Statistics
show
that
the chance of being
in
a
collision increases sharply for drivers
who
have a
BAC
of
0.05
percent
or
above.
A
driver
with
a
BAC
level of0.06 percent
has doubied his or her chance of having
a
collision. At a
BAC
level of
0.10
percent, the chance
of
this driver having a collision is twelve times
The body takes about
an
hour to rid itself of the alcohol
in
one drink.
No
amount
of
coffee
or
number
of
cold showers
will
speed that up. “I’ll be
careful” isn’t the right answer. What
if
there’s an emergency, a need
to
take sudden action, as when
a
child darts
into
the street?
A
person
with
even a moderate
BAC
might
not
be able
to
react quickly enough to avoid
the collision.
b
oreater: at
a
level
of
0.15 percent, the chance is twenty-five times greater!
There’s something else about drinking and driving that many people don’t
know. Medical research shows that alcohol
in
a person‘s system can make
crash injuries worse, especially injuries to the brain, spinal cord or heart.
This means that when anyone
who
has been drinking
--
driver or
passenger
--
is
in
a crash, that person‘s chance
of
being killed
or
permanently disabled
is
higher than
if
the person had not been drinking.
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