How does drinking affect a driver’s abilities?

On Behalf of | Jun 29, 2018 | personal injury

As someone who is a victim of a drunk driver, you know that it is unfair that you’ve had to go through what you have. It’s obvious that drinking and driving is dangerous, yet the driver chose to do so without any regard for other people’s safety.

One thing you want to impress on others is the true risk of drinking and driving. You want to be firm in your conviction not to drink and drive and help them understand how alcohol affects a driver’s abilities.

Just how serious is drinking and driving, though?

At .08 percent, you’re considered legally intoxicated and able to be arrested. At that level of intoxication or slightly above, you lose your ability to concentrate well and lose your ability to control your speeds as well as you should. Your ability to process information reduces and judgment becomes impaired.

Of course, people might argue that a single drink won’t impact your ability to drive safely. However, even having a .02 percent blood alcohol concentration does lead to divided attention and delayed reactions. At .02 to .03 percent BAC, a person begins to have impairment when steering and tracking objects. Coordination begins to falter at around .04 percent, just half of the legal limit.

Interestingly, people often forget that they can face charges if they drive with any amount of alcohol in their systems if the police can show that they were too impaired to be behind the wheel. As a victim, you know that drinking any amount is drinking too much and puts you at risk of a future injury.