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Drink-driving facts you need to know
Every year about 18,000 South Africans die in motor vehicle crashes. 150,000 other people are injured, often seriously. This costs the SA economy R43 Billion a year. Alcohol is involved in about 50% of the cases. (www.sadd.org.za)

Drunk Driving is one of the biggest threats to Road Safety in South Africa. Research indicates that 50% of people who die on the roads have a blood alcohol concentration above 0.05 gram per 100 millilitres. (www.arrivealive.co.za)

The combination of speed and alcohol accounts for 60% of weekly crashes. (www.transport.gov.za)

Drinking and driving carries a fine of R120 000 or 6 months in jail.

Caro Smit (South Africans against Drunk Driving): 'Drinking and driving is a choice you make. There is no such thing as an accident. One doesn't drive drunk by accident.'

Percent of Fatalities per time of day

• 50% of the daily fatalities occurred between 16:00 and midnight.
• 26% of the daily fatalities occurred between 00:00 and 8:00am.

(Road Traffic Report – March 2008)

The physiological effects of drink-driving

• Alcohol is water-soluble and is absorbed in the blood. More blood is supplied to the brain than other organs, with the result that alcohol impairs your brain functions within minutes.
• At a breath-alcohol level of 0.38:
  
  1. Reaction time doubles, muscle co-ordination diminishes and a driver is more likely to respond incorrectly to stimuli
  2. Alcohol affects the forebrain by suppressing caution, carefulness, concentration, self criticism and self control
  3. It is a mood changer, leading to a feeling of well-being and to recklessness, aggression and carelessness, all of which are highly likely to negatively affect judgment.
  4. Alcohol affects vision: Depth perception deteriorates, making it impossible to judge accurately how far away objects are. Eye muscles lose their precision and when both eyes can't focus on the same object, vision becomes blurred or you see double.
  5. Alcohol results in tunnel vision. At night pupils don’t adapt from darkness to light and a drunk driver will be dazzled by oncoming headlights much more severely than a sober driver. Alcohol also makes night blindness worse.

If your blood alcohol concentration is 0.08 you are four times more likely to crash than if you are sober. With a count of 0.12, your chances are 15 times more likely and at 0.16 your chances of crashing are 30 times more than if you're sober.

Refer www.arrivealive.co.za for statistics)

Almost 10% of drivers killed in fatal accidents had BAC of 0.25 (5xlegal limit). This means those drivers must have been over 100x more likely to die on the road than a sober driver.

The legal limits
No person shall drive a vehicle or occupy the driver's seat of a vehicle while the concentration of of alcohol in a blood sample is not more than 0,05 gram per 100 mililitres (or, in the case of a professional driver, not more than 0,02 gram per 100 mililetres).

There are various factors which may influence the uptake of alcohol. However, the legal limit has been determined to be the equivalent of approximately 2 beers or 2 double spirits. You cannot calculate your alcohol limit - so don't try. The amount and type of alcoholic drink, your weight, sex, age and metabolism will all play their part. The only safe course is NOT to drink and drive.