Safety News South Africa

Alcohol consumption: How much is too much?

Over the festive season, there is a lot more drinking and driving, resulting in an increase in accidents this time of year.

You might feel like there is little harm in having a few drinks at a social event and then getting into your car to drive home. But this behaviour puts the safety of other drivers and pedestrians at risk, not to mention your own.

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Added to this, drivers who have too much alcohol in their systems will face the wrath of the law: being over the limit could mean facing up to six years in jail.

Alcohol consumption: How much is too much?

With road safety in mind, here's a guideline to how consuming alcohol affects your driving ability:

  • Co-ordination is highly compromised, putting you at risk of having an accident, high levels of alcohol is a depressant making drivers drowsy.
  • Reaction times are much slower and included slurred speech and blurred vision.
  • Brain and nervous system affected, judgement and decision making impaired causes drivers to be more reckless and uninhibited.
  • Heart rate speeds up and blood vessels expand. After only 1 unit, your chances of being in an accident are doubled, according to the Automobile Association. And after 2 units (when some might still be at the legal limit) you are four times more likely to be in an accident.
  • The rule of thumb is that you can have a maximum of one unit of alcohol per hour.

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