Alcohol consumption: How much is too much?

12 Nov 2018

Over the festive season, there is a lot more drinking and driving, resulting in an increase in accidents this time of year.

You might feel like there is little harm in having a few drinks at a social event and then getting into your car to drive home. But this behaviour puts the safety of other drivers and pedestrians at risk, not to mention your own.

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Added to this, drivers who have too much alcohol in their systems will face the wrath of the law: being over the limit could mean facing up to six years in jail.

Alcohol consumption: How much is too much?

With road safety in mind, here's a guideline to how consuming alcohol affects your driving ability:

Co-ordination is highly compromised, putting you at risk of having an accident, high levels of alcohol is a depressant making drivers drowsy.

Reaction times are much slower and included slurred speech and blurred vision.

Brain and nervous system affected, judgement and decision making impaired causes drivers to be more reckless and uninhibited.

Heart rate speeds up and blood vessels expand. After only 1 unit, your chances of being in an accident are doubled, according to the Automobile Association. And after 2 units (when some might still be at the legal limit) you are four times more likely to be in an accident.

The rule of thumb is that you can have a maximum of one unit of alcohol per hour.