THE MYSTERY CRASH

Mystery [music] Crash [music] takes four. George Haywood 24. Al Schroeder 21. [music] Fred Eckard 23. Joe Pilaski 22. Chevy [music] 63. We know the ending. But how did it all begin? [music] Hey Joe, your fire's ready. Whose fire? Your fire, Joe. I caught him. You cook them. Simple. Ah, come on, man. I cleaned them. Al, you should cook them. Hell, you guys going to spoil a $10 buzz with a 10-centent fish fry? You got a point. Toss me another one of those. You got enough to last us till tomorrow? Only if we leave early. Did you invite anybody to dinner? Fred, did you invite anybody to dinner? Alter there. Al invited him to dinner. I got a message for Alice Roer. Huh? You had a guy from the marina? Yep. Boy, I've been looking for you all day. And Ernie Johnson called and says his wife's in labor. You got to come back right away and take the Sunday afternoon shift for him. That's a drag. Sunday. Did he say Sunday? That's tomorrow's Sunday. Uh, hey, I really hate to do this to you guys, but well, you see, I've been promising Ernie for months that I'd take over for him when the baby came. And I really hate to drag you guys back a whole day early. Maybe I could get back without my car. Oh, no sweat, man. Someday Ernie will do the same for you, huh? How about that? Old Ernie's going to be a daddy. Yeah. [laughter] Well, we're going to get you back in time. We better start now. One thing I don't feel like doing is driving right now. H looks like the beer's running out anyway. What a time to have lost my license. Looks like I'm the only one in shape to drive. Hey, don't worry. Look, a cup of coffee and I'm good for all night. It may take all night and then some. Those clouds are rolling in. That's funny. Those four beers really hit me. Four? [laughter] A six-pack you killed. And you didn't eat anything all day. Forget it. None of us ate. We can get something when we stop for coffee. Damn, these wipers are just no good at all. Say, slow down. Don't slow down. We got to get back for good old Ernie. Please put your brights on. Hey, these are the brights, man. That pothole we hit back there muddied them up. A nice car you got here, Al. Down, Joe. You don't know this road. Oh, man. There's nobody on this road this time of night. Besides, I've never had an accident yet. You never drove a rattle trap like this either. I resent that. Couple of new tires and it'll get you anywhere. Damn, these wipers. Hey, was that a curb sign? 750T drop down there. Is that lightning? Jeep. It's called the mystery crash because [music] often no one is left to tell what really happened. We do not know the reasons for the one car accident, the mystery crash, if indeed it [music] has a single reason. We do know the ingredients. Inclement weather, an unfamiliar road, [music] an unfamiliar car, a vehicle in poor condition, a poor road, and [music] one other ingredient, perhaps the most lethal one, [music] alcohol. [music] In this country, there are 122 million drivers. About 95 million adults 18 years of age or older drink alcoholic beverages. About 50,000 will die in the highways this year and half of these deaths will involve alcohol in some form. True, the problem drinker is involved in many of those fatalities, but this may come as a surprise. The social drinker is a big part of the picture. [music] [music] The [music] social gregarious, fun, dangerous. All the more so because he doesn't know he's dangerous. The brain [music] is a computer, constantly receiving information through the senses, enabling you to make splitsecond [music] decisions. Alcohol is a drug. It is [music] absorbed into the bloodstream. The moment it reaches the brain, it short circuits the [music] computer. Judgment is impaired. Reuters are slow. Vision [music] is reduced just enough to make the difference in a safe trip and an accident. [music] All are factors which make it difficult to pull with the unexpected and the driver is not aware just how dangerously his coordination is affected. [music] The intoxicated driver is not aware of what is happening to it. Incidentally, alcoholic impairment [music] is not an opinion. It is a legal fact and there are machines that measure it. When a driver is arrested for driving while intoxicated, a police officer will ask him to take a breath test. The accused driver merely blows a sample of his breath into a disposable tube which is connected to the breath testing machine. The machine measures and registers the percentage of alcohol in the blood. [music] The result is the BAC blood alcohol concentration. In all but three states of 1% or more blood alcohol concentration is legal evidence of intoxication. 1/10enth of 1% means one drop of alcohol per 1,000 drops of blood. The calculation takes seconds. It is accurate. It is accepted in court. The machine only affirms in a [music] technical way what the drinker at this stage is unable to tell himself. In general, most drinkers [music] go through predictable stages as their blood alcohol concentration increases. At 100th of 1% blood alcohol concentration, the social drinker is hardly influenced as normal actions. [music] One beer produces the slightest effect. At 2 to 300ths of 1% blood alcohol concentration, the social drinker is elated, pleasant, [music] more sociable. A couple of beers can put him there. At 500ths of 1%, the social drinker loses some of his inhibitions is more given to impulsive behavior. Three beers could get him to this plateau. At 0.08 or 0.09% he's flirting with a legal danger [music] point. The signs are beginning to show. At one/10enth of 1% [music] he is confused, staggering, and speech is slurred. One six-pack can [music] put him over the onetenth of 1% level. Now, let's go back to that one can of beer. Come on. You're saying just one can of beer? Well, it's a cold sober fact. One 12 oz can of beer contains [music] as much alcohol as one shot of 86 proof whiskey. And the effects are the same. The concentration of alcohol attained in the blood depends on the amount obviously you've had to drink. [music] The time span of drinking, your body weight, and the amount and type of food in your stomach. Maybe you won't know your blood alcohol concentration, but you will know how many beers you've had. And this rule is easy to remember. One six-pack. Don't [music] drive back. At least not right away. Because the blood alcohol concentration cannot [music] be lowered except through passage of time. Exercise, fresh air, cold showers, forget them. And the only thing black coffee can do is turn a sleepy drunk into a [music] wide awake one. How long should you wait to drive after drinking? In 1 hour, the alcohol in a single beer [music] will be dissipated by the body. generally allow two hours for two beers and yes, more than three hours for three beers [music] because for DWI, driving while under the influence, the penalties are severe. [music] Conviction can mean jail for a year in some states and loss of your license. Legal fees, if you want to fight it, can mount up to $1,000 or more. Should you lose the fight or lose your driving privileges for a year, your auto insurance rates can double easily. Should your job of course require driving and your license is revoked, well, you're out of a job. Simple. In any case, DWI will cost. It could cost you your life. [music] The social drinker. For all his gregariousness, he's a man of mystery. Because in his unguarded moments, he's one of the very human ingredients [music] in, yes, the mystery crash. The one type of [music] accident over which the driver has complete control. The social drinker. He's the one type of guy who just may [music] not know his limit. The social drinker. Everybody likes him immediately until they meet him [music] on the road.