| Impaired; Morning, Noon and Night | Toronto Star Wheels - 10/09/04 | |
Ever driven while hungover?
Many drivers do exactly that not realizing they may still be legally impaired, their bodies still feeling the affects of the previous night’s drinks.
Recent studies by the Irish Medical Bureau of Road Safety and Britain’s Royal Auto Club found that many people do not believe driving the morning after a drinking session is dangerous and have in fact done so in the past. With drivers apparently unaware that alcohol remains in their system and can impair their ability to drive for very long periods, even after sleep, efforts have been made to better educate the public about so-called “morning after motoring”.
Meanwhile other researchers are warning against the classic two-martini lunch and recommending drivers stick to non-alcoholic noontime refreshments.
A British study published last year in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that consuming a modest amount of alcohol, even just one drink, at lunchtime was dangerous because it made that natural afternoon dip in mental alertness a person already experiences even worse.
Participants in the study were interviewed, and had their brain activity monitored via electroencephalograph (EEG) while driving a fully functioning stationary car on a simulated highway for two hours.
Separately, sleepiness (due either to the body’s natural afternoon lag or a bad prior night’s sleep) and alcohol each caused the test drivers to drift out of their lane; a typical occurrence when tired drivers crash their cars. However researchers found that combining sleepiness and very small amounts alcohol significantly worsened the subjects’ driving ability.
Equally troubling was the fact that although the effect of the alcohol registered on the EEG, the drivers themselves were often unaware that the alcohol had affected them.
No matter when alcohol is consumed, -morning, noon or night, there is no trick, no quick method, no secret to sobering up fast.
“Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) decreases by a constant amount every hour on the hour. Thus if a large amount of alcohol is consumed it will take proportionally longer period of time for all the alcohol to be eliminated.” explains Dr. Bhushan Kapur, a toxicologist and clinical biochemist at Toronto’s St Michael's Hospital.
“Sleeping it off, running around the block, drinking coffee does not work. Drinking coffee only makes one an awake drunk rather than a sleepy drunk.” says Dr. Kapur. “Although we may not feel impaired when our BAC is declining it may still be above the legal limits for many hours to come. If a large amount of alcohol is consumed in the evening, it is conceivable that the BAC the following morning may be above the legal limits.”
Drivers must understand that the “Don’t drink and drive.” message not only refers to no driving immediately after drinks have been consumed, but can also mean no driving for hours -sometimes many hours, afterwards.