Alcohol Makes Driving Very Dangerous, Very Quickly

At the Law Offices of Aronberg & Aronberg, we know you’d be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn’t agree that drunk driving is dangerous driving.

But while the vast majority of us accurately view drunk driving as a serious threat to our very lives, far too many of us don’t truly understand the nature of the danger and too many have a skewed understanding of what constitutes “drunk driving” in the first place. Because our personal injury lawyers frequently represent individuals who have been injured in alcohol-related car crashes, we’d like to take this time to dispel the common myth that drunk driving is only dangerous if you feel drunk.

In terms of facts, let’s start with this commonly known one: across all 50 states, a BAC of .08% (and above) constitutes drunk driving. However, the fact of the matter is, according to a new study put out by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), by just having a BAC of .05% (for many people this is 1 or 2 alcoholic drinks), your chances of getting into a car accident when behind the wheel of a vehicle have increased by 100%.

When you just get to the point of technical drunk driving (based on BAC), registering a .08, your chances of getting into a car crash have tripled. That’s truly an issue, especially when you consider the fact that if you’re just under the legal threshold for drunk driving, you’re practically 3x as likely to crash your car than you’d be if you hadn’t consumed any alcohol. Now, just because you are not above the legal limit doesn’t mean that you can’t be arrested for DUI – you can. If a police officer determines that you’ve consumed alcohol to the point of impairment, at which your ability to perform normal functions have diminished, you can be placed under arrest for DUI.

We know all too well that – far too often – people drink to the point of serious intoxication for one reason or another. Whether someone drinks on an empty stomach, drinks while on prescription medication, or simply plans to get “wasted,” the more impaired you become after drinking alcohol, the greater your chances of getting into a car wreck. The next time you consider getting behind the wheel of a car after drinking alcohol, consider this: while a BAC of .08 (2-3 drinks for many people) makes you 3x more likely to crash, a BAC of .16 (double the legal limit and more common than you’d think) makes you roughly 1,300% more likely to crash!

Our personal injury lawyers at the Law Offices of Aronberg have a great deal of experience representing individuals who have been injured in car crashes caused by the negligence of others, including DUI-related car crashes. If you’ve been injured due to the wrongdoing of another, please contact our lawyers at 561-266-9191 or daronberg@build.simple.biz to schedule a free consultation at no cost of obligation. We look forward to helping you.

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