by Jean Clark

Almost every function or gathering nowadays isn’t complete without any alcohol as it functions as a social lubricant that gets normally shy people to lose some of their inhibitions. You might even have experienced it firsthand when you made friends with some random person at a party who you don’t even know at all. But while alcohol can make you gain friends in a way that might be difficult to achieve while sober, it can also give you trouble if you drank and drove your way back home, resulting in a call to a DUI lawyer. So before consuming alcohol and then driving afterward, you would want to know how the said substance can affect your mind:

1. Alcohol makes your mind function slower than usual which can cause you to react late once confronted with a dangerous event while you’re driving along some road.

Your mind needs to be alert all the time once you’re behind the wheel so that you can make snappy judgments and steer clear of anything that can endanger you while traversing a road.

●       However, drinking alcohol can cause your reflexes to become stunted that you might not react quickly to someone slapping you in the face while trying to get you out of your hangover.

●       Like the previously mentioned face slap, you might also have a hard time reacting fast to the presence of another vehicle approaching right in front of you which can lead you to become involved in a head-on collision. In such a scenario, it becomes essential to contact a DUI attorney as soon as possible. You can visit this website to learn more about DUI.

2. Alcohol makes it harder for you to estimate your driving speed as well as your distance from other people and objects.

Aside from having quick reflexes, being able to gauge both your driving speed and your distance from anything else is essential whenever you’re driving a vehicle.

●       But with alcohol in your system, you might mistakenly think that you’re still driving within a road’s designated speed limit when in fact you’re already exceeding it like you’re competing in a race. Law enforcement on duty would then flag you down and charge you with over speeding as well as DUI – or driving under the influence – once they find out that you’re drunk while driving your vehicle.

●       Drinking alcohol and then driving also causes you to think that a certain person or object is far enough from your vehicle even if they’re very near it. You might only notice that you’ve already hit them after you’ve continued driving your vehicle and heard a thump or thud.

3. Alcohol gives you a false sense of confidence by making you think that you’re driving better compared to when you’re sober.

As mentioned earlier, alcohol makes you lose some of your inhibitions. While it can help you gain some much-needed liquid confidence, especially if you’re uptight when it comes to socializing with other people, too much of it can negatively affect your driving.

●       You might find yourself drunkenly bragging either to yourself or to everyone in a social function that you attended that you can drive your way back home like you do when you don’t have any alcohol in you.

●       You might even find yourself trying to imitate those dangerous driving stunts that you’ve seen in some of your favorite movies which you’re hesitant to do without any alcohol at all.

4. Alcohol makes you lose your sense of focus.

One of the cardinal rules of driving any vehicle is to keep your eyes on the road, but alcohol makes you violate that rule which can send you straight into disaster.

●       You might be trying to force your eyes into looking straight at the road ahead while behind the wheel, but alcohol prevents you from accomplishing it.

●       Thus, your vision might get too shifty and cause you to hit a pedestrian that you weren’t able to see at all since alcohol addles your mind.

5. Alcohol makes you drowsy or even tired.

Since alcohol turns you into a loose cannon, you might be feeling initially cheerful like you don’t have any problems at all. But once alcohol’s stimulating effects wear out, you’ll then start to feel a sudden drop in your energy.

●       No matter how hard you’re trying to stop yourself from yawning and shutting your eyes while driving, your mind under the influence of alcohol can’t stop them from happening at all which can result in a blackout episode and thus get you involved in a vehicular accident.

●       In fact, more than one million vehicular accidents happen every year due to drowsy driving according to the United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which makes you wonder if you should be a passenger instead so that you can sleep the alcohol that you drank off.

The United States Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics had noted that more than 100 million drunk driving incidents happened back in 2010. With alcohol still the drink of choice for most adults who want to gain instant socialization skills, the said figure might not drastically drop to only a thousand anytime soon. However, you can avoid contributing to it by taking note of the above-listed things that explain how alcohol can affect your mind so that you’ll have to think twice about doing drunk driving. After all, you wouldn’t want to get arrested for driving under the influence which would then force you to hire a defense lawyer to get you out of jail. You may obtain more information on the legalities of the subject if you click here.

Jean Clark

Jean Clark is a professional writer and loves anything to do with law in business or in the public. She is family oriented, and she loves spending her free time with her family.