Basic HTML Version
Octobec 1971
The
PLAIN TRunl
Watch Out for the Drunl< Driver
A LCOHOL
is the largest single
..l1
factor leading to highway ac–
cidents and fatalities.
According to surveys, drinking a!ld
driving are responsible for the
slaughter of over 25,000 lives and
800,000 crashes in the United $tates
every year.
Until recently it was assumed that
the average citizen, típpling a few
drinks and then drivmg, was the
culprit. But studies indicate that
the worst offenders are out-and-out
alcoholics and habitual problem
drinkers.
A study at the University of Mich–
igan Medica! School indicated that
alcoholics account for 80 percent of
all drunken driver arrests.
It's this small group of habitual
problem dcinkers and alcoholics who
drive that are responsible for so
many highway accidents and fatali–
ties. One medica! examiner estimated
that 44 percent of the drivers killed
are innocent victims of drunken
drivers.
A one-year study conducted in
Grand Rapids, Michigan, analyzing
the drivers involved in 8,000 crashes,
showed that only a few hundred
were heavy drinkers but that those
few hundred were involved in a
large percentage of the crashes.
Other studies show that the
amounts of alcohol consumed by
those causing crashes are usually far
greater than amounts ingested by
moderate drinkers. When drunken
drivers are removed from wrecks,
they often have a blood-alcohol
concentration of .25 percent or
more.
A cooceotration of .25 percent
means the individual's blood con–
tains 25 hundredths of one percent
alcohol by weight. Most people lose
mental sharpness after reaching a
level of just .05 percent. At .08 per–
cent the vast majoríty have had too
much to drink for safe driving.
lt
only takes about two highballs,
two beers
oc
two glasses of wine on
an empty stomach, consumed within
ao hour, to raise a 160-pound rnan's
blood-alcohol level to .05 percent
concentratioo.
What's the Solution?
But why can a minority of irre–
sponsible drunken drivers cause so
much carnage on U. S. highways
annually? One reason is due to
inefficient laws against drunken driv–
ing. They consist of a patchwork of
Ambouodor
Coll•~
Piloto
regulations shot full of loopholes.
Twenty-six of America's 50 states de–
fine drunken driving as driving with
a blood-alcohol conceotration of .15
percent - far too high. Another 17
states use what the Federal Govern–
ment cates intoxication as .10 per–
cent - but that's still too high.
Only Utah set the leve! at .08 per–
cent. Six states have no legal leve! to
define drunkenness!
Great Britain, on the other hand,
now uses the .08 percent level -
and highway casualties significantly
declined during its first year of
enforcement.
What, then, should be done to
decrease this serious menace to life
and property? First, of course, more
stringent laws could be passed, mak–
ing it illegal to drive with an alco–
hol content in the blood of perhaps
.05 percent or higher. Laws could
also be strengthened to require
breath tests for suspected drunken
drivers. Penalties could be stiffer for
those convicted - induding the im–
pounding of abusers' automobiles.
What You Can Do
You can also do something person–
ally. First,
be
more alert to the
dangers of driving. Remember that
one out of every 50 cars coming at
you is being steered by a person on
alcohol or narcotics. Be especially
alert at night, on weekends and
particularly on holidays when more
people drink heavily. Look out for
the other guy.
According to Dr. William Had–
don, former director of the National
Highway Safety Bureau, only about
nine percent of traffic fatalíties in the
morning rush hour involve alcohol.
Twelve hours later at night, the cate
of alcohol involvement rises to
90
percent.
Secondly, you can be a committee
of one to insure that
YOU,
yourself,
are not a problem to society as a
drunken driver. Don't mix drinking
and driving. The mixture is aU too
often fatal and final.
Studies at Indiana University show
that drivers with blood-alcohol levels
of .15 percent have 25 times more
chance of causing automobile crashes
than if they have not been drinking.
Even with blood-alcohol levels of
just .04 percent there is an increased
probability of causing a crash.
Warns the National Safety Council:
"Most _people have the misguided
idea that a few drinks will not
affect
their driving ability. lt is
sad that so often they are wrong.
Alcohol affects first a person's judg–
ment and social restraint, and then
it worsens his control over his
muscles."
The National Safety Council fur–
ther advises that drivers allow at
least one hour per average drink to
regain the muscular coordination,
visual acuity, and good judgment
needed to operate a motor vehicle.
The Council cautions that black
coffee, cold showers, physical exer–
cise, aod other "home remedies" do
not speed elimination of alcohol
from the system.
Keep in miod, that when you give
a drunk a pot of coffee to sober him
up, al! you will have is a wide-awake
dflmk.
29