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It’s a beautiful Saturday evening. The weather is clear, you feel like enjoying the day, and you and your friends head out for an evening on the town. You drive in and have a great time out at a local bar. You have a single beer, knowing that driving drunk is incredibly dangerous. The night winds down, and you head to your car to go home. While you aren’t drunk, you still have had a drink. The question is, then, should you still drive?
Even A Single Drink is Still a Drink
After a single drink, the effects of alcohol begin to occur. Alcohol is absorbed into the bloodstream rapidly and takes time to be processed. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has created a fact sheet on drinking and driving. A single alcoholic beverage can take over an hour to be processed in the bloodstream, meaning that even if you have a single drink half an hour before you leave, whether you feel OK or not, there still may be alcohol in your system. Even a tiny amount of alcohol can cause impairments. If you are drinking, even one drink is too many when it comes to getting behind the wheel.
What Happens After a Single Drink?
After a single drink, many things begin to occur in the body and the mind. Drinking impairs judgment, and with that comes a lack of ability to make informed decisions with proper thought. Alcohol can also affect your ability to see, causing double vision because it can impair your eye’s ability to focus. This can cause you to lose the ability to accurately gauge depth perception, the ability to perceive how close or how far away something is, speed, and your movement. It can also affect your ability to distinguish different colors, such as the inability to discern green from red. These effects occur at four times lower blood alcohol levels than legally drunk.
Stay Safe While Not Sober
If you plan to head out and drink, consider using a rideshare/taxi service or a sober driver. While costly in some locations, rideshares and taxis can help you stay safe by taking you where you need to go. A sober driver, better known as a designated driver, can help you stay safe by selecting one person in your group as the driver for the night. That person should not drink and is responsible for getting everyone home safely.
Contact an Experienced Newport Beach Personal Injury Attorney
Manning Law, APC is the legal experience representing injured victims involved in a car accident that you need. If you or a loved one were involved in a drunk driving accident, we could help. Contact us today at (800) 783-5006 to discuss your options.