A pint of beer or a glass of wine could put you above your driving limit

Drinking even a pint of beer or a glbad of wine could push you beyond the limit when driving while intoxicated, this is the warning of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, while 39, a call for security for Christmas and the New Year is launched today.

Professor Denis Cusack, director of the Bureau, said he wanted people to have fun, but that he was aware of the fact that there are "very serious dangers" related to driving while intoxicated.

"If you've been drinking until 2 or 3 in the morning, the risk is great, especially if you're an apprentice driver or a novice driver where the limit is 20 (20 ml of alcohol per 100 ml of blood), only to be caught, but also to have had an accident and to have injured or killed someone, "he told Morning Ireland, the RTE newspaper.

"A pint of beer or a glbad of wine could get you over the limit, especially for novice or professional drivers where the limit is 20/100."

Professor Cusack explained that the Medical Bureau of Road Safety is the national laboratory that badyzes blood, urine and alcohol samples in alcohol and drugs, and also supplies equipment that people see at the edge. roads and train stations in Garda.

"We make sure every device is checked again and again, we are ready to stick to them and their results."

He warned that it is very difficult for people to estimate the amount of alcohol that they have in their bodies. "The human body is a fantastic machine, it has to work in a certain way. So when we have a drink, we have to handle it in the body and then get rid of it.

"One of the difficulties is that you almost have to be an alcohol expert because beer, wine, spirits, alcohol, all have different alcohol concentrations.

How much alcohol do you drink, how fast you drink it, whether you mix beer and spirits, if you have had a meal, your weight, your obesity, your fat cells, and also if you have taken food with, and in fact, how used you have to take alcohol. All of this goes together.

"The advice is that the key is not to drink and drive. It is very difficult to estimate what is in your body. "

Professor Cusack added that people think that when they buy over the counter remedies "the next morning" that will help dispel the effects of alcohol, this is not the case, a- he declared.

"Our body can only handle and eliminate alcohol, we get rid of about half a pint or a glbad of wine every hour. So if you take two liters, it will take you four hours to remove it from your system.

"It takes an hour to get most drinks from your system. However, people rarely keep an eye on their consumption of alcohol. When you continue to add every 15 minutes, half an hour, it is impossible to calculate.

"Bottom line is, do not drink and drive."