Nova Scotia handbook · chapter 6 · 11 min read

Driving and Impairment

This chapter contains information on various factors that affect your ability to safely drive a motor vehicle. To operate a motor vehicle, you must be mentally alert and unimpaired. As a driver, you must be able to identify what is happening around you, predict potential outcomes, make key decisions, and respond quickly and safely.

Alcohol and Drugs

The degree to which alcohol and drugs affect you depends on many factors: your age; gender; physical condition, such as your height, weight, or general fitness; emotional condition, such as depression, anger, happiness, or fatigue; amount of food consumed; interactions with other substances; and other factors.

Drinking and driving Drinking and driving is a high-risk behaviour that can have serious consequences for you, your passengers, and other motorists or pedestrians. Alcohol is absorbed directly into the blood stream. This means that alcohol- induced impairment begins with the first drink. Legal impairment is defined as having a blood-alcohol content (BAC) of .08 per cent or more. However you can be charged and convicted below this level if you show other symptoms of impairment.

• Don't Drink and Drive Symbol The only way to remove alcohol from your system is through time. Your liver breaks down alcohol at the rate of .015 mg/hr. It takes more than one hour to eliminate each standard drink from your system. A standard drink is a 340 ml (12 oz.) bottle of beer, 43 ml (1.5 oz.) of spirits, or a 142 ml (5 oz.) glass of unfortified wine. They all contain the same amount of alcohol. Black coffee, cold showers, or a jog around the block won’t remove the alcohol from your system.

As the effects of alcohol start to wear off, you begin to feel better or more in control. However, you are probably not sober and may still be impaired. The solution? Don’t Drink and Drive!