STEER CLEAR OF…

Audio commentary:

Learning to drive can open a whole load of new opportunities. It will allow you to visit towns and cities you’ve never been to and make it easier for you to get to and from those hard to reach places. It is important to remember, however, that if you are driving then you will be restricted to what you do when you’re out.

>>> What can affect my driving and how?

Drink – Alcohol plays a part in many young people’s everyday lives. It accompanies any celebration and forms a part of most nights out regardless of the event. A few beers can improve your bowling arm and even make the latest Hollywood chick-flick bearable. But alcohol is a powerful drug that affects the brain and body straight away. It only takes five minutes before it has reached every part of your body. It affects judgement, and ironically the more convinced a drinker is of their ability to drive the worse they actually are. Alcohol causes loss of coordination and slows movement and reactions. It’s a lethal combination when it comes to driving.

Calculating your drink drive limit is extremely difficult as so many factors can affect the amount of alcohol you have in your system. The only way to make sure you are safe to drive on a night out is not to drink at all.

You also need to be aware of how much you drink in the evening if you have to drive the next morning. It will take an hour for a healthy person to remove one unit of alcohol from their system, and there are two units of alcohol in just one pint of ordinary strength beer and lager – that’s your Carling and Carlsberg. Premium lagers like Stella, Grolsch and imported beers contain more.

Drugs – The unpredictable nature of drug use makes it extremely dangerous to drive when under their influence. The same drug and dose can have very different effects at different times depending on the purity of the drug and the person’s emotional mood and health.

Cannabis makes users feel relaxed but also anxious and paranoid. It damages the ability to carry out tasks, including operating machinery and driving vehicles. That’s not cool, dude! Cannabis can be detected in the urine up to 2-7 days after casual use and up to 30 days after heavy use.

Mushrooms produce a similar trip to LSD but it is milder and shorter, usually lasting about four hours. Needless to say, hallucinations are not conducive to the driving experience.

Users of amphetamines and cocaine will feel excited, confident, alert and full of energy, which could be seen as a benefit to driving. However, overconfidence can lead to unreasonable risks being taken. High doses can also induce panic and hallucinations, which are not a great combination if you are behind the wheel. Traces will also be detectable in your urine up to four days after use.

Ecstasy and liquid ecstasy increase energy and a sense of well-being but emotions are more intense and this can lead to disorientation. Again, ecstasy can be detected in the urine up to four days after use at common levels.

Drowsiness – You’ve all heard the joke, I hope to die peacefully in my sleep like my uncle rather than screaming in terror like the passengers on his bus, but driving when tired is a serious subject. You’d think that this would be something older drivers were prone to, but research has shown that 18-30 year old drivers are more likely to fall asleep at the wheel than any other group of drivers. This coincides with the tendency for young drivers to drive at night, when the body’s natural alertness is low.

Driving when tired can impair a driver as much as if they were over the legal alcohol limit and accidents tend to be worse as sleeping drivers don’t brake before impact. Ouch!

Be particularly careful on motorway journeys, especially those late night trips back from gigs at Wembley. Regardless of what your mates say about staying awake to keep you company, they’ll be asleep by Luton and you’ll be left with a monotonous and boring slog home. Turning up the radio and opening the window have limited benefit, even if you have the latest reality show contestant blaring out their unique brand of ‘music’ (through the radio, not the open window). Instead, a fifteen minute break is advised for every two hours of driving.