Negative Effects of Alcohol or Drugs:
- Your brain loses its ability to function normally
- You cannot stay aware and alert
- You cannot think clearly
- You cannot focus
- You cannot react to the situation effectively
- Your ability to make a good judgment is impaired
- Your hand-eye coordination is impaired
- Your reflexes are slowed down
- Your mood and behavior are affected so you may feel anxious, depressed, or act aggressively or react badly to a situation.
- You struggle to perform more than one task at once
- Your senses are affected and weaken, so you may not hear well or see and interpret a situation well.
- You won't have the normal control of your arms and legs
- You become tired and less alert
Adverse effects on your driving:
- Your coordination is impaired, so you are not well coordinated to drive, stay in your lane, or react to a traffic situation.
- Your depth perception and your ability to judge distance are impaired, so you may tailgate, cut off other vehicles, or make dangerous driving maneuvers.
- Your perception of speed is impaired, so you may drive way above the speed limit or drive too slowly compared to the flow of traffic.
- Your reflexes are slowed, so you may not be able to react in time and correctly to an emergency situation.
- Your ability to be alert and aware of your surroundings is reduced, so you may not realize and notice a traffic hazard or situation, or you may stare straight ahead instead of scanning the scene.
- Your ability to react to a traffic hazard or situation is reduced, so you may not be able to take effective actions when you are confronted with a traffic situation.
- Your ability to think clearly is reduced, so you may forget what you were doing or lose the ability to make the right decision or follow the traffic laws.
- You will be tired, so you are slow, sluggish and are not able to react properly when confronted with the traffic situation or when needing to make driving maneuvers that require awareness and carefulness.
- Your senses, especially your vision at night, are weakened so you may not be able to notice a pedestrian or a child approaching your car from the sides, or you may not see a pedestrian walking across the street in dark clothes.
- Your mood is changed, so you may be too excited or react negatively to a situation and not pay attention to the current traffic condition or situation.
- If you are drunk, you may not have full control of your arms and legs and may not be able to react to a traffic situation in a timely manner.
