Get behind the wheel? Only sober

A car these days is a genuine necessity. Big cities, long distances that are hard to cover on foot, and no desire whatsoever to squeeze onto a minibus or into a packed metro. It's far nicer to drive your own car, be in charge of the situation, and handle your business on your own wheels. It's all fine, except for one thing... We love to drink, and sometimes visiting a friend, or going to work where a company party is expected, becomes a real problem. On one hand there's the desire to drive, and on the other, the desire to have a drink.

And once again the eternal question that troubles many drivers comes up: how much alcohol can you drink and still get behind the wheel without fear? Of course, you can start citing other countries where attitudes toward drinking are much more relaxed than ours. For comparison, in the US the allowed limit is no more than one per mille of blood alcohol, which is roughly equivalent to 150 grams of vodka. But our people's mindset is nothing like that of Westerners. Even sober, the way we drive is dangerous to those around us.

So, in Russia the permitted level is 0.3 per mille, which is about 50 grams of vodka. But it's not really advisable to drink even that much. As practice shows, even a breathalyser can glitch and produce readings that don't match reality at all. One conscientious citizen ran a simple experiment. He drank 100 grams of vodka and periodically measured his blood alcohol level. It turns out that after just 5 hours, the breathalyser shows a perfectly normal reading. But even that shouldn't be pushed too far. It's also worth remembering that the concentration of alcohol in the blood, and how long it stays active, depends directly on a person's weight, so if you're not particularly heavy-built, alcohol will stay in your blood longer than usual.

Of course, sometimes it's so hard to resist temptation. Especially when you've come to visit a friend who has excellent cognac, or better still, his own home brew. The car starts to feel like such a burden... There are two options: drink and stay, or drive and, quite possibly, never see each other again. So it's worth waiting a while...

Article provided by www.alkotest.ru