Have you ever tried it? What was the experience? If you tried or drove and survived, it’s one out of a few cases! Alcohol impairs driving. That fact, established by epidemiological data together with many controlled studies of alcohol and driving skills, is well known and generally accepted. What is less well understood is that impairment of the most important skills can occur at a very low blood alcohol concentration (BAC). The skills involved in driving a motor vehicle include psychomotor skills, vision, perception, tracking (steering), information processing, and attention. Data from laboratory experiments indicate that all of these functions are impaired by alcohol, although they differ in the extent of their impairment at any given BAC. The issue of whether to drive or not while drunk comes out as an answer and not a question at all at a logical point of view Ms. Alice Nturo, a nutritionist at Kimironko asserts that “there is no bone of contention on the issue of whether to drive or not when drunk, if you know you are drunk don’t drive your car simply call a cab to drop you at your destination”. Although alcohol affects coordination and balance, these abilities do not become obviously or significantly impaired unless alcohol levels are high. (This does not hold true for occasional or moderate drinkers.) The brain’s control of the eyes is highly vulnerable to alcohol. Both the frequency of eye movements and the duration of each fixation, or “look,” show significant changes with increasing BACs. Buikhuisen and Jongman (1972) examined the effects of alcohol on eye movement while subjects viewed a film of traffic events. They found that the proportion of looks directed to the center of the driving scene increased under the influence of alcohol. As a result, subjects failed to see important peripheral events. The whole issue is not about being able to drive while drunk but the dangers one is exposed to when driving while drunk, which he or she can’t notice. Think about this, if it’s a matter of death and life because an accident can only kill or cause severe indemnity, probably a measure should be taken to lessen the risk. According to Malcolm Alex, a Nigerian Citizen at Kigali Institute of Education “all those drunk and driving should be kicked off the road by the strong arm of the government and there is no bargain about this, it’s logical and experimental”. This is true because the Alcohol-impaired drivers require more time to read a street sign or to recognize and respond to a traffic signal than those who are not impaired. Consequently, they look at fewer sources of information and acquire less total information per unit of time. Because they must cope with the ongoing requirement to steer the vehicle, they restrict their looks to the center of the driving environment, and they may fail to see critical events occurring elsewhere. The brain’s control of eye movements is highly vulnerable to alcohol. It only takes low to moderate blood alcohol concentrations (.03 to .05%) to interfere with voluntary eye movements and impair the eyes’ ability to rapidly track a moving target. Steering an automobile is adversely affected by alcohol, as alcohol affects eye-to-hand reaction times, which are superimposed upon the visual effects. Significant impairment and deterioration of steering ability begin at approximately .03 to .04% Blood Alcohol Concentrations and continue to deteriorate as Blood Alcohol Concentration rises. Almost every aspect of the brain’s information-processing ability is impaired by alcohol. Alcohol-impaired drivers require more time to read street signs or respond to traffic signals than unimpaired drivers. Research on the effects of alcohol on the performance of automobile and aircraft operators shows a narrowing of the attention field beginning at .04% blood alcohol concentration. Alcohol and automobiles are a deadly mix. Each year in the United States thousands lose their lives because an impaired driver made a reckless decision to drink and drive, and hundreds of thousands more are injured. Several measures have been adopted to prevent such tragedies, but the numbers still remain high. ‘Just like hardwork never killed anybody, drunk and driving could not have killed the people you know but why take a risk!?’ Ends
