The document discusses various aspects of vision, fatigue, disabilities, distractions, emotions, peer pressure, alcohol, drugs and their effects on driving. It notes that field of vision narrows at higher speeds, night blindness impairs night driving, and fatigue and emotions can impair driving similar to alcohol. It provides information on alcohol limits, testing, and combined effects of alcohol and drugs.
1. Unit #7
• Most people’s field of
vision is about 180
degrees.
• The faster you travel, the narrower your
field of vision gets. At 55 mph, your side
vision is less than half that when you are
going 20 mph.
• A person with 20/40 visual acuity must be
twice as close to an object to see it as
clearly as a person with 20/20 vision.
2. • Depth perception involves judging the
distance between you and other objects.
Normal vision (left and right) and night blindness (middle)
• Night blindness means a
driver can’t see as well
as most people while
driving at night.
• Fatigue is like alcohol, it slows down your
body’s mental and physical processes.
• The best way to prevent fatigue on long
drives is to rest before you start.
3. • Most drivers with permanent disabilities
understand that their disability may put
them at a greater risk to drive.
• Your sense of hearing helps to alert you of
critical traffic sounds – don’t crank up the
car stereo.
• To prevent carbon monoxide poisoning, do
not warm up your car in the garage.
4. • Smoking inside a closed vehicle raises the
carbon monoxide level in the blood of the
occupants.
• Passengers can help the driver better
manage their motions by discouraging
reckless actions.
• In any driving situation, you must be able to
be mature enough to adjust behavior to
minimize risk.
5. • Emotions other than anger (such as happiness
or sadness) can also cause a driver to be
impaired.
• Drivers who can mange their emotions are
less likely to put themselves at risk while
driving.
• An emotional event not related to driving
can affect your driving.
• The emotion that occurs most often to
drivers is anger.
6. • The driver must be the leader of everyone
in the vehicle because the driver is
responsible for the safety of all the
passengers.
• If you encounter an angry driver, you
should avoid eye contact and remain calm.
• Peer pressure can be either
positive or negative.
• The best way to avoid the risk of driving
under the influence of alcohol (or drugs) is
avoid driving if you have taken either.
7. • A depressant (such as alcohol) slows down
the central nervous system.
• Amphetamines cause a driver to have a
false sense of alertness.
• Alcohol begins to affect a person almost the
moment it enters the body.
• Drivers between the ages of 16-20 are more
likely to be alcohol-impaired than any other
age group.
8. • Nearly half of the people killed in alcohol
related collisions were not drinking.
• Over half of all driving-related
fatalities during the holidays
are alcohol related.
• Kansas has a zero tolerance
law which makes it illegal for
people under the age of 21 to
drive with any amount of
alcohol in their body.
• Most states have set the level of
intoxication at BAC of .08 percent
9. • The amount of alcohol in a shot of whiskey,
a glass of wine, or a can of beer is the same,
even though the volume of liquid is
different.
• When you sign for your license,
you are giving your implied
consent to be tested for alcohol
and/or drugs if a police officer asks
you to.
• Do not drive if you take any medication
drugs that will affect your driving ability.
10. • Drugs taken in combination with alcohol
can be very dangerous, even fatal.
• Field sobriety tests are a series of roadside
checks that a police officer can give a driver
suspected of driving under the influence.
• An average person’s system oxidizes
alcohol at the rate of ¾ of a drink per hour.
In other words, it takes an hour and fifteen
minutes to oxidize one alcoholic drink.
• If you take a medication and then drink
alcohol, chances are that the effects of both
will be multiplied.
11. • The use of marijuana affects a driver’s
coordination and judgment for many hours,
making it dangerous to drive.
• Alcohol affects a person’s
judgment before it affects their
coordination.
• Coffee will not help sober up a person who
has been drinking alcohol.
• If you are unable to prevent a drinker from
driving, refuse to ride with them. Find
another ride.