Drinking and driving don't mix
In 2007 an
estimated 14,480 road casualties in Britain involved drinking and driving. If you plan to drink, don't risk driving:
- book a taxi
- use public transport
- stay overnight
- arrange for someone who is not drinking
to drive
- don't be tempted to get into a car with anyone else who has been drinking
Consequences
of drink driving If you think you won't get caught, you're wrong. Around 100,000 drivers are convicted
every year for drink driving. You don't have to be in a crash to be breath tested. The police can ask you to take a breath
test if they suspect you have been drinking, or if you commit a traffic offence. If you're convicted of drink driving:
Effects of alcohol on driving can include:
- slower reactions
- increased stopping distance
- poorer judgement of speed and distance
- reduced
field of vision
Alcohol also tends to make you feel over-confident and more likely to take risks when driving,
which increases the danger to all road users, including yourself.
If you drive at twice the current legal alcohol limit*
you are at least 50 times more likely to be involved in a fatal car crash compared to a driver who has not been drinking.
The
morning after
If you've been out drinking you may still be affected by alcohol the next day. Even
though you may feel OK when you get up, you may be over the legal alcohol limit or unfit to drive, and could still lose your
licence. It's impossible to get rid of alcohol any faster.
A shower, cup of coffee, or other ways of 'sobering
up' will not help. It just takes time.
There are no excuses
"I had
a drink but it was at lunch time"
Even a small drink at lunchtime can make you more sleepy and impair your
driving.
"I feel fine to drive"
Any amount of alcohol will affect your judgement.
"I've only had a couple"
Even a single drink will affect your driving performance.
"I've had a meal"
Alcohol just takes a little longer to get into your system,
your driving will still be affected.
"I can handle my drink"
You may think you
can handle your drink, but you will have difficulty judging distance and speed. Your reactions are slower, so it will take
you longer to stop.
"I'm only going down the road"
A large proportion of all
drink drive crashes occur within 3 miles of the start of the journey.
"I'm driving slowly and
carefully"
Alcohol actually makes you less alert.
Units
So you know
the consequences but what you really want to know is how much can I drink and then drive without being over the limit?
Well
in short no-one knows. Everyone is different and probably the first time you will find out where that magical line is is when
you are at the side of the road with a police officer and by then it is too late.
It depends on:
- your weight, sex, age, metabolism
- stress levels
- an empty stomach
- the amount and type
of alcohol
The answer to the question is simply don't drink and drive at all.
It
is important, however, to know about these things called units because they tell you when your body is free of alcohol
and you are ok to drive after having consumed alcohol.
As a rule it takes 1 hour for your body to process 1 unit
of alcohol. Add on 1 hour to that to allow for your body to start working and you can work out when you are alcohol free.
Alcohol by Volume (%) x volume (ml)
= Units
1000
Try this
example
You go out on a friday
night. Start drinking at 8pm. You drink draught Stella which has an ABV of 5.2% and you consume 6 pints.
Work out when you will be alcohol free and therefore
safe to drive.
Firstly work out
how many units are in one pint of Stella using the formula above.
5.2
x 568 = 2.95 units
1000
To make things easy that's
3. Remember you only have to do this once for your favourite drink and then you know.
So 3 units x 6 pints gives you a total of 18 units plus 1 for
your body to start working which is 19.
That means you now know you will be alcohol free 19 hours from when you start drinking. So in this example we said
that was 8pm on the friday. Add 19 hours gives you an alcohol free time of 3pm on Saturday afternoon.
Now you can see why so many people are now being caught
and convicted of drink driving the following day even if they did the sensible thing and kept the car at home on the night
they went out.
An even quicker way to find out how many units are in your favourite drink
is by using the new
online unit calculator from the NHS.
* The legal alcohol limit for driving in the UK is 35 microgramms of alcohol in 100ml of breath or 80mg of alcohol in
100ml of blood.
