DUI Lawyer Markham Illinois | How alcohol affects driving

Alcohol affects different people in different ways. Some people become more impaired by alcohol than others, and some are more likely to have accidents if they drink. If you have made a poor decision to drink and drive, you need a DUI Lawyer Markham Illinois to protect your rights and make sure you can move forward. Contact The MacNeil Firm for a consultation today at (708) 218-0947 or (708) 218-0947. 

When a person drinks, alcohol gets absorbed through the stomach and small intestine and passes into the bloodstream. It stays in the bloodstream until it is metabolized by the liver. Because it is in the blood, a person’s alcohol level is measured by blood alcohol concentration. At a BAC of .08, a person is legally considered intoxicated and the risk of having an accident is drastically increased. 

Effects of Alcohol

Alcohol impairs your ability to drive safely by affecting your cognitive functions, including judgment and fine motor skills. Impaired judgment can make you less likely to consider all risks associated with driving your vehicle, such as other vehicles on the road or pedestrians in crosswalks.

Alcohol impairs fine motor skills. Your ability to steer, brake, and accelerate smoothly will be impaired when you’re drinking alcohol because of this loss of coordination between brain and muscle control systems caused by alcohol intoxication.  

A person who has been drinking alcohol may have difficulty maintaining proper speeds while driving or stopping at traffic lights or stop signs because his/her vision may be blurred. The higher the BAC, the more your judgment and motor skills are affected. At a .15 BAC, there is substantial impairment in vehicle control, attention to driving task, and in necessary visual and auditory information processing.

The amount of alcohol that will affect your ability to drive depends on your body weight, age and gender. For example: A man weighing 154 lbs may be able to drink twice as much as another man of the same age who weighs 110 lbs. This is because the heavier person has more blood vessels and muscle tissue through which to distribute the alcohol throughout their body. Therefore it takes longer for them to reach the legal limit for driving.

By working with an Illinois criminal defense lawyer from The MacNeil Firm, you may be able to  keep criminal charges off your record and protect your driving privileges. You may also be able to keep your insurance rates from sharply increasing, and uphold your reputation within your community and your career field. Contact our DUI Lawyer Markham Illinois for a free consultation today. 

More about alcohol impairment

It takes only one drink to impair driving ability. The amount of alcohol it takes to affect your driving depends on how much you weigh and other factors. A drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer or wine cooler, 5 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof distilled spirits like vodka or whiskey.

Alcohol impairs your ability to make good decisions. It can cause you to make bad decisions, such as driving too fast or following too closely behind other vehicles. Alcohol also decreases your reaction time, making it more likely that a driver will be involved in an accident and get arrested for DUI. The risk of being involved in a crash increases by about 400 percent when at least one driver has had anything to drink before getting behind the wheel. 

If you drink, it’s best to wait for the effects of alcohol to wear off before driving. Alcohol takes time to leave your system, so even if you feel fine, it may still be impairing your ability to drive safely.

Our DUI Lawyer Markham Illinois will help you get a positive outcome for your case

If you’ve been drinking, it’s important to know how long alcohol can stay in your system and how long it takes for the body to recover from its effects. Of course, the best way to keep yourself and others safe is by avoiding driving while impaired. If you have any questions or concerns about drinking and driving, or need an experienced attorney on your side, please contact us for a free consultation.