Alcohol is involved in more than one-third of Minnesota road deaths each year, and drugs — even legal ones — can impair you just as badly. Impairment starts with the first drink.
Alcohol-related crash facts
- Impaired-driver crashes kill an average of 240 people a year in Minnesota
- The person most often killed is the impaired driver
- Young men are more likely than others to drive impaired
Know the rule
It's illegal to drive impaired by controlled or intoxicating substances — illegal drugs, prescription drugs, over-the-counter drugs like cold medicine, and household products. Legal drugs mixed with alcohol can be powerfully intoxicating. A prescribed drug is allowed if your doctor says it won't affect your driving.
Handbook p. 94 ↗Know the rule
Read warning labels and follow your doctor's orders. Don't use any drug to hide fatigue — the only cure for fatigue is rest.
Handbook p. 94 ↗Alcohol concentration
The amount of alcohol in your blood. The higher it is, the greater your impairment. Driving ability is impaired after just one drink.
Handbook p. 94 ↗How alcohol affects driving
| Function | Effect |
|---|---|
| Judgment | You misjudge your impairment, speed, stopping distance |
| Vision | Less eye movement and peripheral vision; blurring |
| Reaction time | Slower response to signals, drivers, pedestrians |
| Steering | Over-steering, weaving, running off the road |
| Perception | Sights and sounds missed or misread |
| Coordination and balance | Can't combine steadiness with speed and accuracy |
| Attention | Hard to focus on the many tasks of driving |
Standard drink
A 12-ounce beer, 5-ounce glass of wine, typical mixed drink or 9-ounce wine cooler hold about the same alcohol. Mixed drinks may exceed 1.5 ounces; beers vary up to 40 percent.
Handbook p. 95 ↗Proof
The strength of a drink, equal to twice its alcohol percentage. An 80-proof whiskey is 40 percent alcohol.
Handbook p. 95 ↗Know the rule
Drinking more than one standard drink per hour raises your alcohol concentration. The body eliminates about one drink per hour — 95 percent through the liver, the rest through breathing, sweat and urine. Only waiting lowers it; coffee, exercise and cold showers don't help.
Handbook p. 95 ↗Know the rule
Alcohol affects people differently by age, gender, body weight, mood, food, metabolism and genetics. Muscle doesn't absorb alcohol as readily as fat, so a person with more body fat reaches a higher concentration than someone of the same weight drinking the same amount.
Handbook p. 95 ↗Lower-risk choices
- Designate a driver who won't drink
- Call a taxi or rideshare, or a friend or family member
- Stay overnight at a friend's house
- Take the keys from an impaired friend
- Make your plan while sober, since alcohol impairs judgment
Put it into practice
After two beers in an hour, a friend says a large coffee will sober him up. It won't — coffee doesn't speed up how fast the liver removes alcohol. Only time lowers alcohol concentration, so he should get a ride.