Although everyone is well aware that impaired driving is illegal and extremely dangerous, this still doesn’t stop some people from doing it.
We believe that the risks involved are perhaps not emphasised enough.
So today we are here to elaborate on the dangers of impaired driving, and hopefully, you will realise the levels of danger involved.
What can impair driving?
The obvious biggest culprit here is alcohol, and everyone knows that drink driving is a bad idea, but it’s not just the immediate effect of the alcohol that’s the problem.
If you drink heavily at night, there’s the chance that you could still be over the limit the day after. This is why many police departments set up stops on mornings over the Christmas break, they tend to catch a lot of people who have been partying.
But drink isn’t the only problem.
Drugs, either prescription or otherwise, can have an adverse effect on reaction times.
If you take any kind of drug that you’ve been prescribed or have picked up from the pharmacy, you should check to see whether there are any warnings.
You should also be aware of your tiredness.
Sleep deprivation is a major cause of accidents, and it’s been found in many cases that it can be as bad, and sometimes worse than driving while drunk.
But how do these things affect the driver?
Decision Making
When you are impaired, your decision making is drastically worse.
This means that you’re likely to make the wrong decision, and therefore create a bad outcome.
This can be particularly lethal when it comes to roundabouts and intersections, because you might decide you have enough time to join the traffic.
However, in reality, you probably don’t. And we’re sure you can see how this is a major danger, and could end terribly.
Reaction Speed
Another serious threat to both yours and others safety is the impairment to your reaction speed.
Whilst your decision making is already a problem, having a slower reaction speed added to this can be devastating.
Even if you make the safest decision; the time it takes to implement it is often too slow for typical traffic. Making a nasty recipe for disaster.
Obscured Vision
In addition to the two previous impairment factors, we also have obscured vision.
This essentially amplifies the severity of the first two. One, because how are you supposed to make decisions if you cannot see what you need to decide between.
And two, how can you react to something you might not see.
Whilst the list goes on, the biggest issue surrounding impaired driving is the risk that you put on yours and other people’s lives. Death has a devastating effect on anyone who is involved.
So please, do not drive whilst you’re impaired. It could be the difference between life and death.