Jim Burke Automotive Body Shop

"Buzzed" Driving is Just Plain Dumb

This is our story about "buzzed" driving and we're sticking to it. Here's the scenario--it’s a normal weekend night and you’re out with your friends and having a really good time.

You’re the most responsible person in the group so while others are imbibing, you’re carefully nursing one lone beer. You drink only one drink per hour during the entire evening to do things right. You know that you’re under the legal limit, but when the bar closes, you realize that you’re buzzed.

At  Jim Burke Automotive Body Shop in Birmingham, AL we know that "buzzed" driving is a significant problem here in this country and all over the world.

In most states in this country, the legal intoxication limit is at 0.08%; much less (0.04 percent ) for commercial drivers, and 0.02 or 0.01 percent for drivers under 21 years of age. These numbers fluctuate state-by-state. Under California’s zero tolerance law, for example, the limit is 0.01 percent, while "buzzed” driving is operating a car while you have a Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) of 0.01 percent to 0.07 percent.

Even if your BAC is as low as 0.01 percent you're still placing yourself and your passengers at risk whenever you get behind the wheel of any vehicle. The basic, undeniable fact is that there is never a safe combination of drinking and driving.

In an article that was recently published in the British Medical Journal of Injury Prevention, a study of U.S. data looked at the relationship between a driver’s BAC and how much liability the driver should assume during an accident. Using data from compiled fro 1994–2011, the study discovered that drivers who were on the low end of “buzzed” driving were 46% more likely to shoulder the blame for a collision.

So how much beer, wine and/or hard alcohol is too much when you’re operating a car? For the majority of all adults, it takes less than 1/2 a beer to get a blood alcohol concentration of 0.01%. You read that right – less than 1/2 of a beer.

A report by ABC News reported that accidents involving alcohol are 36.6 percent more severe, even if the operator was just “buzzed” or has a BAC that was barely detectable.

The only truly logical conclusion is that there is absolutely no safe way to combine drinking and driving to any degree.

30 people are killed in America due to drunken driving crashes, which equals one person dying every 48 minutes.

Drunken driving accidents killed 10,874 people in 2017 and injured more than 300,000 that same year.

The people of the United States lose approximately $132 billion annually because of drunken driving and the damage it causes.

Approximately one in six children involved in an alcohol-related crash in 2016 died.

Don't drive while "buzzed" because in the end it can lead to serious injuries and even worse--fatalities. With Uber and Lyft and designated drivers, there is no reason to risk you and your friends while getting behind the wheel in a "buzzed" state.

Jim Burke Automotive Body Shop in Birmingham, AL 35203 

Sources: NHTSA and AAA