Drinking and driving is never a good idea. Drunk driving is a dangerous habit can lead to DUI charges and deadly vehicles accidents. But why is that? What type of drinking effects reduce our driving skills? While we know drinking and driving is dangerous, it’s important to understand why.
How Drinking Effects Can Harm Our Driving Skills
Judgement
One of the first things that alcohol affects in our brain is our judgement. However, judgement is certainly something that we need in order to drive a vehicle safely. For instance, driving requires you to be able to judge distance, speed, and when it’s safe to make a move. Therefore, reducing judgement is just one of the drinking effects that can harm driving skills. Vision
Drinking effects can take a toll on our vision and our ability to see clearly. That’s because alcohol slows down our eye muscle function. In addition, becoming drunk can cause you have double or blurred vision. People also find it difficult to focus their eyes on more than one after drinking.
Therefore, it can reduce our peripheral vision, which we need while driving. Being able to see objects and perceive depth and movement accurately is a necessary driving skill. Therefore, by reducing your ability to see clearly, drinking and driving becomes very dangerous.
Reaction Time
Slowing your reaction time is one of the most harmful aspects of drinking effects. When it comes to driving, you need to be able to recognize movements and react quickly. For instance, once a green light changes from green to yellow, it’s crucial that you recognize this change and slow down to a stop.
However, if it takes you too long to realize and react, you won’t be able to slow safely and stop. Now, imagine any number of cases that involve other vehicles and your ability to react to their moves. Doing so is crucial when driving, so this can be one of the dangerous drinking effects.
In short, drinking effects have a huge negative impact on certain skills you need to drive safely. While you may think these effects only come into play when you become drunk, that’s not always true. In fact, may of these drinking effects take place after you have just two drinks. Therefore, it’s always best to have a designated driver no matter how little you drink.