Alcohol and Driving

                                                                 Alcohol and Driving

                                                                    By Mick Gillman

            You slip behind the steering wheel, start the engine and off you go. Driving may become second nature to you, especially if  you’ve been doing it for years. But it is not that simple as it may seem. It has been estimated that under normal circumstances you make about 20 major decisions for each mile you drive. Decisions about what you see and hear in connection with other cars, traffic signs, and pedestrians must be translated into action involving the brake, the accelerator, the clutch, and the steering wheel. And you don’t have much time to decide-often just a split second. So driving required a delicate coordination between decisions and actions. Alcohol makes this driving task especially dangerous. Why? Because alcohol affects the driver in several ways that significantly impair his ability to drive safely.

                                                                  Alcohol and Vision

            When you drive, it has been estimated, 85 to 90%of the information you obtain regarding the traffic situation is received through your eyes. Your vision is controlled by a very delicate system of muscles that move and focus your eyes. Alcohol slows the function of these muscles and thus impairs vision in several ways. For one thing, alcohol reduces the ability of the eyes to control the amount of light entering the retina. That’s especially critical at night. Why? Because it increases the amount of time it takes for the eye to recover from the glare of oncoming headlights. Explains Alcohol, Vision & Driving, distributed by the American Automobile Association: “Normally, it takes one second for the pupil to constrict and respond to the glare of oncoming headlights. It takes seven second after exposure to headlight glare for the pupil to once again to adapt to the dark conditions. This recovery action is slowed by alcohol.”

            Consider the potential danger: It is lat at night. You are driving on a winding, narrow highway – just one lane n each direction. The glare of the headlights is blinding for drivers on both sides of the road. How safe would you feel if you knew that the driver of an oncoming car had been drinking? Alcohol also reduces peripheral vision – the ability, when looking straight ahead, to notice things on either side of you. This is especially dangerous when mixing alcohol and high-speed driving. Explains Alcohol, vision & Driving: “Most drivers fail to realize that at 30 MPH a driver has reduces his side vision by 25%. At 45MPH, he has reduces his side vision by 50%. And at speeds over 60 MPH, he is literally driving down a ‘vision tunnel.’”

            Just imagine the possible consequences when the drinking driver speeds through intersections or past cars where small child may suddenly dart out. Moreover, alcohol can cause double vision, so that the drinking driver may see two cars approaching him instead of one. Furthermore, it can affect a person’s ability to judge distance. From all of this, it is evident that alcohol and driving, like oil and water, just don’t mix. Indeed, the Bible has it right when it says: “Who has dullness of eyes? Those staying a long time with the wine.” (Proverbs 23:29, 30) But accurately seeing the traffic situation around you is only part of what is involved in safely driving a car.

                                                               Alcohol and Judgment

            Once you perceive the traffic scene, you must judge, or decide, what action you are going to take. For example, suppose you’re traveling on a two-way road, and the car in front of you is driving slowly. You must decide if and when it is safe to pass. Here, too, alcohol can be deadly. How so? Often, as the drinkers blood alcohol level rises so does his self-confidence. Explains the manual Alcohol and Alcohol Safely: “A person at this stage [.04 to .06% blood alcohol content] is likely to consider himself more alert and even more capable than normally even though there has been a reduction of his reaction time, his judgment, and his ability to respond to emergencies. Thus, as his actual ability to perform decreases, his confidence in this ability increases. As a result, the drinking driver may take more chances in passing and speeding. Why, if the person is poor or an inexperienced driver to begin with, even the slightest effect on hid judgment could be dangerous.

                                                                Alcohol and Reflexes

            It’s bad enough that the drinking driver has trouble seeing and takes more risks. What further compounds the problem is that alcohol also slows down his reaction time. As a result, it may take just a fraction of a second longer for him to move his foot from the accelerator to the brake pedal. To illustrate how dangerous that can be, the report by Malfetti and Winter cotes that if you have just two 12-ounce cans of beer within an hour, your reaction time may be slowed to two fifths of a second. Now, that may not sound like a much. But the report notes: In two fifths of a second, an automobile traveling at 55 miles an hour will travel an additional 34 feet! Why, that could be the difference between a near-miss and a fatal accident! When you consider how alcohol affects a person’s vision, judgment and reflexes, it is easy to see why drinking and driving are a deadly combination. But what can be done about the problem? And how can you protect yourself and your family from the driver who has had too much to drink?