The hazards of drunken driving

‘Don’t mix drink and drive’, ‘drunk driving may land you in jail’ and several such messages by the Delhi Traffic Police through posters can be seen everywhere in the city, but the effect of these messages seems to be minimal.

Many accidents involving people in inebriated condition are reported from the Capital almost every day. According to the police, all the four occupants of the Audi car, which crashed at Britannia Chowk on Tuesday, claiming the lives of two men and leaving the other two injured, were also suspected to be drunk at the time of the accident.

According to road safety experts, driving in inebriated state is under no condition acceptable, but there can be certain precautions that a person can follow while returning home after consuming alcohol.

“The permissible limit of alcohol in a person’s body is 30 mg per 100 ml of blood. Thirty ml translates into a single peg of vodka/whiskey or a beer bottle. If a person has consumed this amount of alcohol then he/she will not be considered drunk and can drive but only if there is no one present. If the quantity goes beyond this limit, the person loses sensibility to take decisions. In that case, the person who is not drunk should be behind the wheel,” said Rohit Baluja, president of the Institute of Road Traffic Education.

“Another thing that people should avoid is driving after they consume alcohol after a hard day’s work. In that case, fatigue, tiredness and long hours of driving make a deadly combination,” added Mr. Baluja.

Mr. Baluja also pointed out the hazards of driving late in the night. “Driving till the early hours of morning or late into the night is dangerous as most of the people tend to jump signals,” he said.

“People should follow rules even at this time in order to avoid mishaps. The best thing is to slow down the vehicle at blinkers. If drivers on both sides of the signals start doing that, possibility of a crash will come down. Also, people should not keep the lights of their vehicles on high beam. This is a major road safety aspect, which is often neglected,” said Mr. Baluja.