TGIF. Now before you head out for Happy Hour. . .

This will be a quick one.  I know you’re anxious to start your weekend. 

A simple piece of advice you’ve heard at least a thousand times before:  don’t operate a motor vehicle after drinking alcohol.  This message is so ubiquitous that it’s almost become part of the background noise in our society.  If you’re interested in improving your life odds however, you need to understand why this message is so important.

A general category titled “Accidents” is ranked number 5 on the top ten hit list of things that kill us.  A large percentage of those accidents are motor vehicle accidents.  Now if you want to function in modern society and you don’t live in NYC, Chicago, London, or another city with practical public transit, you’re probably going to be stuck getting behind the wheel, so you can’t avoid the risk of a motor vehicle accident entirely.  However, you can dramatically reduce your risk for dying in a car accident by not getting behind the wheel after drinking alcohol.  And that includes any amount of alcohol.  We’re all notoriously bad at judging our own blood alcohol content just based on how we feel or how much we’ve had to drink. (more…)