Monday, 18 July 2011
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Just ONE Glass of Beer or Wine Increases Risk of Car Accidents
Plenty of my friends and even my own parents will drive themselves home or somewhere else after drinking just one glass of wine or a cup of a beer. But according to a new study published in the journal Addiction, you might want to reconsider getting behind the wheel after drinking just a bit.
The study, which was conducted by the University of San Diego, California found found that having a blood-alcohol concentration of just 0.01 percent (a lot lower than the U.S. legal limit of 0.08 percent) increased the odds of being in a serious crash. Researchers studied data on fatal car crashes in the U.S. from 1994 to 2008.
Researchers also found that even with a small amount of alcohol in the driver's blood, there were 4.33 serious injuries for every non-serious injury versus 3.17 serious injuries for sober drivers. Also accidents are prone to be 36.6 percent likely to be more severe if the slightest alcohol is even involved.
The study compared sober drivers to those driving with a "buzz." Drivers with a "buzz" are more likely to speed, more prone to be improperly seat-belted and more likely to drive the striking vehicle.
The researchers of this study warn against any drinking before driving. The best precaution would be to not drink at all before you drive.
What do you think of this study? Do you drive after just one beer or glass of wine? What precautions with alcohol and driving do you take?
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- From: Olympia
- About Me: I'm a broadcast journalism and anthropology major. Health and science are my nerdy passions. I hope my blogs motivate, inform and sometimes shock you, but only in a good way of course :) Twitter: OlympiaBardis
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Comments (42)
I've driven home on 6 drinks and not had an accident or anything. The only accident I've been in happened when I was sober and the other guy was speeding. That's not to encourage drunk driving.....that's just to say that there are exceptions to the rule.
Never drink and drive!
I'm never drinking and driving. At all.
The moral of the story is don't fucking drink and drive. Just because some friend of a friend got totally hammered and stoned and drove home at 60mph and managed to not die or kill anyone else doesn't mean that you can too and doesn't mean that that friend of a friend would be as lucky a second time. There is a reason why the designated driver usually abstains from all alcoholic beverages for the evening.
@x_damaged_yet_unbroken_x@xanga - there is no exception to the rules....consider yourself lucky driving with 6 drinks in you and getting home safe. But again its your life and the people you will hurt if you kill yourself or another is yours to live or die with.....carry on
Alcohol is probably a stronger drug than people realize. The fact that it lowers inhibitions means that just drinking at all alone means that... well you can't say you know you're fine to drive, because alcohol often takes the ability to properly take that decision away from a person... they just can't tell because they're impaired. So I get sick of hearing how some people INSIST they drive FINE or even BETTER when they are drunk than when they are sober, because whether they FEEL that way or not, the facts are the facts and in 99% of cases AT LEAST, that person is simply too impaired to know they are driving badly. If people ever REALIZED they were too drunk to drive, or that they were driving poorly, then there wouldn't be NEAR as many accidents. Someone would maybe get in a car realize "Wait, I'm actually TOTALLY sucking at this, I'm gonna maybe just pull over and make a new plan before someone DIES", but they never do... because alcohol impairs JUDGEMENT, but that's what SO many people seem to miss here. Obviously there are the people who realize this, and then there are those who just DON'T at all, and I don't understand how you NEVER understand that. It's not a hard concept to grasp, I don't think. It shouldn't be. It's ridiculous how many people think they're actually really great drivers when they're drunk, though, when actually... they're just dumb, and impaired. =/
So it's safe to say, no matter how tolerant you think you should be, or how well you think you're functioning, if you're gonna be drinking at all, then you shouldn't be driving, because if you're too impaired to drive WELL, you won't be able to tell. You can't. It's stupid to just drink and assume after you've had a few you'll assess what state you're in, and you'll be able to tell whether or not you're good to go.
Also, the argument that you drove after drinking and didn't crash is a stupid one... people do stupid and dangerous things and LIVE all the time... doesn't mean it's SAFE, or "an exception to the rule"... it means you got lucky. It's like saying that doing deciding to go wrestle a bear with rabies isn't stupid and dangerous because you know this one person who survived it... so that's an exception to the rule, so SOMETIMES it isn't... No. It was still stupid and dangerous, they just got damn lucky. It didn't cease to be stupid and dangerous, or anything, even for that particularly situation because they got lucky. It was still all of those things, they just cheated death that once. Doesn't mean they can do it repeatedly and get away with it, it doesn't change the nature of the situation, but not everything potentially fatal, or stupid, or terribly dangerous always ends badly... sometimes people luck out, they get a second chance, or a third, or a tenth not to be a dumbass, but if they keep doing it... eventually their luck will run out, they don't get any more chances, and it catches up to them.
@AGreatPerhaps@xanga - well said..wish these things had a like button
@x_damaged_yet_unbroken_x@xanga - Not an exception, just luck.
@x_damaged_yet_unbroken_x@xanga - Such a stupid decision.
Im not proud to say this but I've driven drunk a couple times and even more than a couple times I've driven buzzed. I however, can handle my alcohol and one can of beer isnt going to impair my ability to drive straight or the speed limit.
My uncle got a DUI from this many times and even hit a pregnant lady while drunk. His sober friend just let him his keys. Not to mention, my uncle died from drinking too much.
Or that one of my best friends got in a bad wreck because the driver of a truck was under the influence.
@path_2_happiness@xanga - @TakingxOverxMe@xanga - @LoveeLikeASunset@xanga - @AGreatPerhaps@xanga - Since you all want to give me a verbal beatdown......I never said I was proud of it, nor did I say it was a good decision. I just said that I've done it before and nothing happened.
Yes, I've driven buzzed before. Yes, I generally drink a glass of wine when I go out to dinner, and then I drive home. No, nothing's ever happened to me. If I know I have to drive, I don't have more than two, and then drive very carefully.
Makes sense to me. The first thing alcohol affects is your judgement and inhibitions. However, alcohol tends to also have effects based on the culture you live in (I think in India, moderate amounts of alcohol don't cause people to become more inhibited because they don't believe it makes you that way). So, I dunno. Alcohol is a hell of a drug.
@x_damaged_yet_unbroken_x@xanga - The point they are TRYING to make is that you were a selfish idiot for driving with that much in your body. Just because nothing happened to YOU THAT TIME doesn't mean that nothing will happen again. Don't be so ignorant, by even saying that you ARE encouraging drunk driving. If any of my family members were injured or God forbid killed in a drunk driving accident, I would make sure that person would not live to see another day.
i thought that was a lobster
They also need to consider the whole weight vs. alchohol thing. Me and one margarita=done. My boyfriend (a good 200 something) and one margarita is laughable, he will need 7 more.
Somehow I feel that driving with one drink is safer than being a passenger to a texting driver.
I don't feel a thing after one beer. Most of the time though, if I know I don't have time to sober up and I have to drive, I just won't drink at all.
I have had a beer or a glass of wine and driven before. I don't like doing it, so I don't do it often.
That's scary, but I can see how it can be true. Even being tipsy can slow your response time, and make you say or do things you normally wouldn't. So for the lightweights who get tipsy off of just one drink, say no to driving.
I would never, ever get behind the wheel of a car after a drink, nor would I get into a car with a driver who'd been drinking. People who drink drive are not only putting themselves at risk, but they're risking other people's lives too. Such stupidity. No wonder society is heading in the direction it's going.
Yes, lets all drink and drive and kill innocent people and get away with it.
Seriously.
And it's utter fucking bullshit for anyone to say "oh, I drink x amount, but I make sure I drive very carefully". Wow, you must be super human to have that much awareness of self perception. Oh wait, that's impossible. And it doesn't justify anything. Not getting in a crash for doing it doesn't justify anything. There's always next time.
Interesting enough, getting little to no sleep has a lot worst effects than having 1 drink and driving....but that's another thing altogther.
@MiriamBeth@xanga - This. And in general how people handle alcohol. You could take say, two 130lbs women. Both say 25, and the same height. One girl could be drunk off one glass of wine, one could be stone cold sober off one glass of the same wine. Every single person handles alcohol differently. No two people are going to get drunk, or even buzzed off the same amount of alcohol (with the exception of binge drinking obviously).
@x_damaged_yet_unbroken_x@xanga - i don't remember giving you a verbal beat down. I'm not one to do that. Yelling and calling people names I find to be nonconstructive. I just said do as you like but be ready to live with the consequences