Alcohol has been one of the causes
for the growing number of road accidents in the United States. Most of them
occur during the night and on weekends, where people tend to drink at bars and
clubs and travel somewhere else while intoxicated. Skills greatly needed in the
act of driving are affected by the intake of alcohol, even on low blood alcohol
content. Here are some of the driving skills directly affected by alcohol intake.
Alcohol impairs the ability of the person to
balance and coordinate himself with his surroundings. If walking and balancing
is difficult when intoxication is evident, driving is also difficult for his
part.
Alcohol impairs the brain’s control over the
eyes, making it difficult for the driver to see clearly around him. Add in the
fact that driving at night requires utmost vision despite the man-made lights
brightening up the roads; it would be even difficult for the driver to see the
periphery ahead of him.
The ability of a person to take in
complicated sensory information is also greatly impaired by alcohol. A sober driver can take on an intersection at
any point in time, although a person who is known to drink heavily yet drives
home in a little or no-traffic road may have a hard time dealing with a busy
intersection within the city.
Keeping
car on track
With alcohol, the driver cannot align his car
or vehicle on the right lane. With vision and psychomotor skills impaired,
steering the wheel and keeping the car or vehicle on track is quite difficult
to do.
Processing
of information
Alcohol makes the continuous flow of
information either abrupt or slowed down. Because the vision of an alcohol-induced
driver is impaired, he can’t see clearly a traffic sign or a red light. If he
does so, he tends to be slow to react than he is sober.
Attention
The driver must always keep his vehicle and
must keep watch of other cars, traffic lights and pedestrians. A division of
attention is needed to keep the vehicle moving and at the same time exercise
safety towards other people. But with alcohol, divided attention is limited,
wherein the driver is only able to steer the wheel without regarding other
people’s safety.
Vehicular accidents caused by alcohol are considered an act of
negligence, wherein the drunk driver failed to perform extreme care towards
other people, including drivers and pedestrians. Experiencing an accident
caused by a drunk driver is grounds for recovery, and must be dealt with
immediately with a car accident attorney Los Angeles
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