North Carolina driving lesson · Alcohol and the Law
How alcohol and medication affect your driving
A 3-minute lesson from the North Carolina course. Read the rules and examples, follow the handbook page references, and check your understanding before you move on.
No one drives as well after drinking, even if they look and act unaffected. About 38 percent of all traffic fatalities involve alcohol. Its effects reach most of your brain, so you can't compensate for them.
38%
Share of all traffic fatalities that involve alcohol
Prescription and over-the-counter medications can affect your driving. Find out how a medication affects you before you take it, and drive as little as possible while on it.
Driving is affected by physical and mental health. Even short-term illnesses like colds, headaches or flu can make you less alert and less responsive than normal.
After two beers you drink three cups of coffee and feel fine. You're still impaired: coffee makes you more awake, not sober. Call a ride or wait. Only time lowers your alcohol level.
Check your understanding
Read the question, decide on an answer, then open it to check the explanation. These are Roadwise study questions based on the source handbook.
About what percentage of all traffic fatalities in North Carolina involve alcohol?
38%
10%
60%
25%
Answer: 38%
About 38 percent of all traffic fatalities involve alcohol.
You've been prescribed a new medication. What does the handbook advise before driving?
Only avoid driving if it is a prescription drug
Drive normally unless you feel drowsy
Find out how it will affect you first
Take it only after you reach your destination
Answer: Find out how it will affect you first
Prescription and over-the-counter medications can affect driving; find out how a medication will affect you before you take it and drive as little as possible.