From the moment that mankind moved from horses to comfortable car interiors, the issue of drinking alcohol while driving remains one of the most debated and controversial. The statistics of accidents involving drunk drivers indicates that more than 50% of them are fatal. Many drivers are concerned about the question of what type of blood alcohol is acceptable in our country. The most commonly called figure is 0.6 ppm. We will tell you everything you need to know on this topic for a motorist spending almost all his free time driving.
Ppm: what it means and how it is measured
According to international standards, the degree of intoxication of a person is measured in ppm. If you translate the name of this value literally from Latin, then a ppm will mean "for a thousand." That is, it means one thousandth of a number or one tenth of a percent. This measurement of alcohol intoxication is used in all countries of the world, which greatly simplifies the understanding of the situation when the question arises of communicating with law enforcement officers outside the home state.
Keep in mind that ppm means how many grams of alcohol-containing liquid are in human blood. Determine alcohol intoxication using a blood test, urine test or breathalyzer, which is located in each patrol car DPS.
Fatal dose of alcohol - does it exist?
We will not argue that the use of alcohol brings many problems and significantly harms health, but with a certain amount of alcohol in the blood a person can easily say goodbye to his life.
The consequences of the influence of alcohol on the human body depend on the age, weight and characteristics of a particular individual. Although there is a generally accepted concept of a lethal dose of alcohol. For example, for an adult, the dose of 5.0 ppm will be fatal, for a teenager, the critical norm is equal to 4.0 ppm. But the child will die with a content of 3.0 ppm in his blood. Keep in mind that the basis is the content in the blood of a liquid having a strength of more than 90 degrees.
Up to 0.5 ppm, the body does not give in to the influence of alcohol, which cannot be said about 0.6 ppm of alcohol in the blood (this is how much an adult needs to drink to get an initial degree of intoxication).
Where did the law banning driving while intoxicated first appear?
The first to introduce a ban on tipsy Englishmen. This law entered into force at the end of the nineteenth century. But there was no one to track the trespassers, and many drivers used a similar omission by the British authorities. About twenty-five years after the adoption of this law, the first London driver who drank beer before driving was fined. From this moment began the statistics of fines and punishments for drunk driving.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the efforts of Swedish scientists developed a system for detecting blood alcohol levels. Each country independently determines the permissible boundaries, but, according to international standards, they should not exceed 0.8 ppm.
Foreign powers: is it possible to drink while driving, and in what quantities?
In many European countries, up to 0.6 ppm of alcohol in the blood of a motorist is permissible. "How much can you drink?" - usually think our compatriots. Do not flatter yourself: you still can’t drink more than one beer. In addition, foreigners taking on the chest while driving, may receive a more severe punishment than the locals.
The Americans are the most loyal to drunk drivers ; there, the offender is prosecuted if more than 1.0 ppm of alcohol-containing liquid is found in his body.
Russia: when was the campaign against drunk drivers launched?
It is worth noting that in our country for a long time, increased responsibility for driving a car was not introduced. Until the middle of the last century, drunk drivers in the event of an accident received exactly the same punishment as sobering. In the second half of the twentieth century, intoxicated drivers were already deprived of their rights for one year, and repeated violation increased this period to three years.
In the eighties of the last century, according to legislative amendments, motorists began to not only be deprived of their rights, but also fined. Until 2000, fines for driving while intoxicated were constantly increasing, but the increase in the amount of money and the term of deprivation of rights for a repeated violation was canceled.
At the moment, the driver is punished by deprivation of the right to drive a car and a fine, but repeated violation may lead to imprisonment.
Reflections on drunk per ppm
Those who got drunk inspector DPS always try to justify themselves with a small amount of alcohol in the blood. Drivers believe that a slight excess of the alcohol content in the body cannot be considered a serious violation, because they allowed themselves only a couple of glasses of beer. Indeed, 0.6 ppm of alcohol - how much alcohol is drunk? Indeed, in translation to alcohol-containing drinks, it is much easier for any person to navigate.
So, 0.6 ppm is how much alcohol is drunk? We hasten to disappoint you, the calculation of the alcohol content in the blood will be very approximate, because no one can predict how quickly your body absorbs alcoholic beverages. But if you take an example of a healthy man weighing eighty kilograms, then two bottles of beer will be exactly the same 0.6 ppm (this is how much alcohol he needs to achieve a mild degree of intoxication, under which this amount of alcohol falls).
For a woman, the calculations should be different. For example, for a representative of the weaker sex weighing fifty-five kilograms, 0.6 ppm of alcohol corresponds to one glass or a bottle of beer. As we see, even a low-alcohol drink in a small dose for the body is enough for the first stage of intoxication in men and women.
0.6 ppm of alcohol - how much is drunk and how does it affect driving?
Even after seeing the level of alcohol in the blood on the breathalyzer inspector of the traffic police, many drivers try to explain that a slight degree of intoxication does not affect their ability to drive a car. Is this really so?
So, if an alcohol concentration of 0.8 ppm is detected in your blood (which is just over two glasses of beer, do not forget), then consider that you are becoming a potential killer. Your reaction slows down significantly, and the ability to correctly determine the distance to objects decreases significantly. Such a dose of alcohol adversely affects the perception of light and light sources by the eye. The driver may not notice the red signal of a traffic light, a sign on the road, lose the sharpness of perception of the picture when switching to the main beam.
Not surprisingly, this behavior on the road leads to accidents. And ruthless statistics suggest that many of them are fatal.
0.6 ppm of alcohol - how much fine do you have to pay?
Since there is a law in our country, according to which only 0.16 ppm, which the breathalyzer can show when taking certain drugs or kvass on a hot summer day, is considered the permissible norm of alcohol in the body, exceeding this norm is punishable by a fine. In recent years, this amount has been constantly increasing, and at the moment it can hit the wallet of even a fairly wealthy person.
For the initial violation, you will have to pay a fine of thirty thousand rubles. Repeated violation will cost fifty thousand. At present, a bill on increasing fines for drunk driving is under consideration. If adopted, the maximum amount will double.
What other punishment is provided for exceeding the concentration of alcohol-containing fluids in the body?
So, 0.6 ppm of alcohol is found in your blood. Are they deprived of the right to drive a vehicle for such an offense? Or can you still get off with a fine? Be sure that you are sure to lose rights. In addition to a major fine, one and a half to two years of walking life awaits you with an initial violation. If the situation with intoxication repeats, then you will already lose your rights for five years.
For 0.6 ppm of alcohol, the punishment can be even more severe than excommunication from your favorite car. If you repeatedly violate the law while driving, the judge has the right to order your arrest up to fifteen days. In the future, this period may be increased to one month.
We hope that our article will convince you not to drive while intoxicated. After all, after drinking a couple of glasses of beer, you endanger not only yourself, but also the lives of those around you. As statistics show in accidents caused by drunken drivers, innocent people passing by or in other cars most often die. Therefore, be careful and responsible, no pleasure from a noisy holiday with friends is worth the lives of others.