Fatigue

Accident records show that many people have suffered accidents which clearly resulted from their falling asleep at the wheel. Another danger is "highway hypnosis" or a trance like condition brought on by continuous or monotonous driving.

Experience has proven that fatigue is one of the most dangerous factors in the traffic acci-dent picture. No matter how fit a person may have been when he started driving, he is not fit to drive if he drives continuously until he becomes very tired and perhaps sleepy.

Stopping for refreshments, fresh air, singing, listening to radio, or ride sharing can help to temporarily alleviate the problem. Rest is the only sure cure.

Physical Limitations

A person may have some physical condition which, in its natural state, would make him a dangerous driver. However, medicine or glas-ses or a hearing aid might correct the condi-tion so as to make him fully capable of safe operation of an automobile.

Another person may have some condition which is permanent. It cannot be corrected. However, he may learn to compensate for it. One learns by practice and experience to compensate for some handicaps.

Whether you are calm, nervous, or hot-tempered, your personality affects the way you drive. Don't let your emotions interfere with safe driving. Don't drive when you are upset or ill.
Age Factor

IMPAIRMENT	POSSIBLE RESTRICTION
Poor Acuity	Corrective Lenses
Blind in One Eye	Outside Mirrors
Progressive Eye Disease	Medical Cycle For Vision

Age Factor

Older drivers sometimes do not deal as well as younger drivers with complex traffic situations. Multiple-vehicle crashes at intersections in-crease markedly with age. At age 75 and older, almost half of the fatal crashes involving the elderly are of this type, compared to less than 25% for drivers up to 40 years old.

Alcohol

DID YOU KNOW ALCOHOL IS A DRUG?

You must always drive alert, awake and care-fully. You must not drive after you have taken any drink or drug which changes how you drive, makes you less careful, or slows down how you act. Alcohol affects different people in different ways. Four of the most important factors that determine the effects of alcohol are: a) your body weight, b) the amount of alcohol you drink, c) the amount of time in which you drink it, and d) your experience with drinking alcohol.

Alcohol as a Drug

The American Medical Association states that alcohol is a member of the anesthetic series of drugs, related to ether, chloroform and other anesthetics.

Alcohol is a depressant and can slow down all your bodily functions. When a person has alcohol in the blood stream in any amount, he is drugged. That the drug was taken in a beverage rather than a needle doesn't change the fact.

Stages of Alcohol Interference

Alcohol is absorbed into the body very quickly. The liver, which "burns it up", works at a much slower rate than the rate at which alcohol can be absorbed. One-half to 1 ounce an hour is the amount that the liver can burn up. Since it takes less alcohol to impair the functioning of the cerebrum, or the upper part of the brain, the first effects of alcohol will be a lessening of the ability to reason.

Initially there may be no noticeable effect on muscular coordination. The emotions are also as strong as ever as they are controlled by the lower parts of the brain stem.

In the first stages of drinking, people tend to be more social, less inhibited and more friendly. Of course, some people, with their inhibitions becoming weaker, tend to become aggressive and disagreeable.

HAVE YOU NOTICED THE FOLLOWING STAGES OF DRINKING?

Coordination impaired
Vision deteriorates
Reaction time increases

Now think of this person as a driver. He nor-mally drives at a reasonable speed and exer-cises proper caution, even when he is late for an appointment or angry. After drinking, reasoning is dulled. He gives way more freely to impatience, anxiety and anger. He takes chances and becomes a poor risk as a driver.

One of the first inhibitions most likely to be nullified by the effect of alcohol is the inhibition against further drinking. As the social drinker goes on to take another and another drink:

Muscular coordination will be increasingly impaired.
His vision will deteriorate, become less ef-ficient. He may reach a point of actually seeing double.
His reaction time will become longer.

Blood Alcohol Level And Limits

WHEN IS A DRIVER LEGALLY DRUNK? REMEMBER, AGE AND WEIGHT ARE IMPORTANT FACTORS!

Accident Potential and Statistics

A study of the National Transportation Safety Board determined that the likelihood of a driver causing a highway accident begins to increase noticeably at a BAC of about .04%; at .06%, the chances are four times as great; at .10%, more than six times as great; at .15, about 25 times.


Drinking alcohol and driving is a major cause of serious accidents. In 1982, there were 4,113 fatal collisions in California, killing 4,609 persons. Alcohol usage was found to be the main cause of 52% of these accidents. During 1982 there were 272,1 15 drunk driving convic-tions reported to the DMV.

Effects of Alcohol on the Body

Organs

Just as the body must eliminate food wastes, so must it eliminate alcohol. A small percentage is eliminated through the kidneys, breath and sweat gland.

Vision

Alcohol has an effect on vision similar to that of driving with sunglasses in twilight or dark-ness. Eye muscle coordination is decreased by alcohol, driving response to visual clues is slowed and usually exaggerated.

Brain

The first effect of alcohol is upon the brain, which controls reasoning, judgment, and so-cial behavior.

As alcohol concentration increases, most of the cerebrum is affected as are the centers that control the sense or motor functions. The result is emotional instability, retarded respon-ses, impaired vision and lack of coordination.

Minimizing the Effects of Alcohol


Space your drinks
Taper off and stop
Eat before and during

CAN YOU THINK OF TWO ADDITIONAL WAYS TO AVOID BEING DRUNK?

· Space your drinks. Switch between soft drinks and alcoholic beverages.
· Try not to have more than one drink per hour. Don't make drinking the only activity; Play cards, talk, dance, etc.
· Taper off and stop drinking at least 1 hour before you drive.
· Eat before and during drinking.
· Don't drink alcohol if you are taking medicine or drugs.

Sobering up

People often say that black coffee and showers will help sober up an intoxicated per-son. This is completely untrue. The only thing that can sober someone up is time; usually several hours during which the alcohol will be burned up, and the alcohol content of the blood will diminish. Be aware of the following:

· A cold shower won't sober you up.
· Coffee won't work either.
· Mixed drinks can be very strong yet deceiving.
· You can get just as drunk on beer and wine as on hard liquor.

The Drinking Pedestrian

Impairment of the human and bodily functions by the use of alcohol decreases effectiveness as a pedestrian. Pedestrian traffic clues re-lated to vision, hearing and feeling are affected negatively by alcohol. A recent study indicated that alcohol is the largest single contribution to pedestrian traffic deaths, with 41% of the pedestrian victims who were 16 years of age and older having BAC of .10% or higher.

DRUGS

PLEASE NOTE THAT IN JUST ABOUT EVERY NEWSPAPER THERE ARE MANY ARTICLES ABOUT DRUG ABUSE AND THE WIDESPREAD AVAILABILITY OF THE SUBSTANCES!

A drug is anything that you can eat, drink, inhale or take into you body in some other manner and that will alter the way your mind and body function.

Some drugs are medicines and are used to help people recover from mental or physical diseases or disorders. Other drugs are used primarily for non-medical reasons. These can be dangerous and risky substances. Almost any drug that a person buys "on the street" is a dangerous substance.

The word DRUG is used to measure a number of different kinds of substances. Many are controlled by law and may be sold to the public only when authorized by a doctor. These are called "prescription drugs". Other drugs sold over-the-counter are called ''non-prescription drugs''. They may be sold legal-ly without a doctors' prescription. Misuse of some of these easily available nonprescription drugs has created a dangerous condition in relation to traffic safety:

As in the case of alcohol, there is a tendency for dangerous effects to develop without any warning sensation being recognized by the user.

The loss of normal behavioral inhibitions is characteristic of drug use. The higher center of the nervous system reacts to the drug first, as in the case of alcohol.

Drowsiness, loss of neuromuscular coor-dination, hallucinations, and even total col-lapse may be the result of taking drugs.

Types and Effects of Drugs

Please realize that there are two major types of drugs. They are prescription and non-prescription.

The other categories are:

Depressants
Barbiturates
Stimulants
Narcotics
Hallucinogens

Central Nervous System Depressant

The brain and the spinal column are called the "central nervous system". These are the parts of the body that send out all the messages to the other parts telling limbs how and when to move, for example, and controlling other physical functions such as vision, hearing, taste and reflexes.

Depressants slow down the central nervous system. They make you feel drowsy and calm. BARBITURATES (downers or reds) are depressants. Many people use barbiturates under a doctors' prescription, as sleeping pills. When mixed with alcohol, they have increased effects that can lead to severe physical reaction and even death.

Stimulants

These are drugs that speed up the central nervous system. They make you breath fast, or they may make you feel excited or "wired".

Amphetamines (speed) are stimulants. Often they are sold under prescription as diet pills. Some people use them, with a doctors' prescription, to keep awake in special situa-tions such as night jobs.

One of the dangers of amphetamines is that the more a person takes them, the more they build up a "resistance" --that is, they will need greater and greater amounts of the drug to get the same original effect. After taking large doses of amphetamines, people often ex-perience great mental and physical pain as they come down or crash from an am-phetamine high.

Narcotics

The narcotic that has received the most atten-tion in the US is heroin, a strong addictive drug. Because heroin addicts experience severe physical pain if they are unable to ob-tain regular quantities of the drug, many ad-dicts become "slaves to the habit". Narcotics have long been associated with crime. Since they are illicit drugs, those who sell them are criminals by definition, and those who buy them frequently engage in crime in order to "support" their habit. Other narcotics include morphine and opium These, too, are addictive substances.

Hallucinogens

These are known primarily for their ability to alter the users perceptions. LSD, PCP and (often) marijuana are hal-lucinogens. So are peyote, psilocybin and mescaline. The effects vary greatly from one individual to another. These drugs can produce either a "high.' or a depression, depending on the frame of mind of the user.

Accident Potential

WHY IS IT DANGEROUS TO DRIVE UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF THESE SUBSTANCES?

Almost any drug can impair a drivers' physical and mental functioning to some extent and should therefore be used carefully by anyone who plans to drive after taking it.

Marijuana and alcohol tend to be the drug used most frequently by young people, both of which can radically alter a drivers percep-tions, judgment, and ability to react.


Drugs and the Law

The sale and possession of drugs are governed by laws:
It is illegal to use prescription drugs for non-medical reasons. It is illegal to sell or possess narcotics. Possession of 1 ounce or less of marijuana is punishable by a maximum fine of $100 and is considered a misdemeanor in California.

Synergistic Effects -Alcohol & Drugs

The combined effect of alcohol and drugs is much more than one would expect in simply thinking of adding the normal effects of one to the effects of the other.

A person may be using antihistamines for a cold or an amphetamine to avoid sleepiness. Combined with alcohol, the nature and inten-sity of the effect cannot be predicted. It may prove to be far more violent than either one alone or added together.