Last week a Fine Gael councillor claimed that driving after three or four pints wasn't wrong in all cases. Paddy Comyn and Aoibhinn Twomey put the claim to the test
This week has again been a frightening one for Irish motorists. Not only because there has been further loss of life on our roads, but also because of comments in the media by certain politicians that highlighted a startling ignorance about the effects of alcohol on our driving ability.
The problem is that if Fine Gael councillor Michael Fitzgerald's comment that there was nothing wrong with someone driving after three or four pints was unique, then there might not be such cause for concern. But he is not alone. There remains the belief among Irish motorists that there is nothing at all wrong with having a few pints and then driving home.
So we set out to test this theory. Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) is the measurement used to check the concentration of alcohol in our system. It is measured either as a percentage by mass, or by mass per volume, or as a combination. The legal limit for driving is 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood so a reading of 0.80 per cent on a breathalyser, such as the Saferdrive personal breathalyser we used for this test puts you over the limit.
Calculating what amount of alcohol puts you over the limit varies according to the height, weight and gender of the person involved. Whether you have eaten a proper meal or indeed slept properly can affect this reading too. But, on average, 2-3 pints for a male and 2-3 glasses of wine for a female would be enough to be illegal.
But what exactly happens to us when we consume alcohol and what are the effects that this has on our driving abilities?
In order to test out our theory we used one car, a new Mitsubishi Colt, two drivers and a relatively new driver on the roads. We differ dramatically in weight. I am a rather well-fed 15 stone at 6'2" with Aoibhinn weighing 8.5 stone at 5'3".
Our drinks were six cans of Guinness for me, and a standard 14 per cent bottle of red wine for her. These added up to roughly the same units of alcohol in total. The task set by the experts at Mondello Park was threefold. First we had to tackle a slalom of cones set up on the track and negotiate a narrow corner and come to a halt with the front wheels of the car within a triangle of three cones.
Secondly, our reactions to a skid were tested in the circuits Advanced Car Control vehicle, which is a specially modified Volkswagen Bora in which understeer and oversteer and characteristics of a skid, can be simulated at the touch of an instructor's button. Thirdly our braking reactions were tested using the circuit's Brake Reaction test. This is a stationary car that is hooked up to a machine that measures how long it takes us to take our foot off the accelerator and get on to the brakes in an emergency situation.
Tackling all these tests at the start of the exercise was pretty easy. The slalom was straight forward enough for both drivers, despite there only really being a pretty short distance between the cones.
Next up was the Advanced Car Control. Our instructor, Mondello Park's Public Relations Manager Fergus Brennan decided to use oversteer, where the back end of the car would break away, to test our reactions.
My first reaction on a pretty high setting was according to Fergus quite smooth and controlled. Aoibhinn's first test on this saw her lacking a little confidence, but the reaction was also quite smooth and timely. Lastly it was on to the Braking Reaction test, where it took Aoibhinn just 0.47 seconds to react to the brake lights. This was faster than my best time of 0.48 seconds.
Both of these times would be deemed as quite good, but in the real world they equate to about 6 metres or 20ft travelled at 50km/h before the driver applies the brakes.
So then it was on to the hard part - the alcohol. We consumed two drinks each - two Guinness for me and two glasses of red wine for Aoibhinn. These were not bolted, but consumed as normal and 20 minutes was allowed to make the breathalyser test more accurate.
The results were already surprising. I was measuring 0.11 per cent after just two pints of Guinness. I was now illegal to drive after a mere two pints of my favourite tipple. The same was true of Aoibhinn. Her two glasses of wine has given her a reading of 0.12 per cent so she too in the eyes of the law was unfit to drive. I felt fine after my two drinks, and perfectly capable to drive, but Aoibhinn reported feeling a little sluggish after her two glasses of wine and not particularly keen on driving.
So what would the tests tell us? Tackling the slalom and the Advanced Car Control again, there was a change in both drivers, but not necessarily for the better.
Our instructor, Fergus Brennan, was not impressed. "Both drivers hit cones and there was a definite reduction in ability and both drivers showed a lack of understanding of where the cones were. In the skid car, the behaviour was totally incompatible to road safety. The erratic driving was typical with increased confidence but decreased capability. They had definitely started to become a danger."
There was also, more worryingly a change in the brake reaction test. We both displayed erratic responses and our worst times were 0.72 seconds for Aoibhinn to get onto the brakes and 0.75 for me. This equated to an extra 1.5 metres more than the previous test, and this was concentrating fully on the task.
So it was time to consume more alcohol - two more pints for me and two more glasses of wine for Aoibhinn. Again, we waited the required 20 minutes after drinking the second drink and were breathalysed and this time, after just four pints of the black stuff, I was reading 0.24 per cent and Aoibhinn after four glasses of wine was reading 0.32 per cent. That is exactly three times over the limit for me and four times the limit for Aoibhinn.
Instructor Fergus Brennan noted that Aoibhinn's driving ability had deteriorated dramatically. The Advanced Car Control test for Aoibhinn was very poor and she was unable to react properly to the skid. She was in effect a danger. My own ability was not that much better. I was displaying a bravado that in my head wasn't there, but was obvious by my performance.
The speed with which I tackled the tasks had increased but I was unable to complete the slalom without hitting cones and my reaction to controlling the skid car was very poor. Again, I countered the skid with aggression and this resulted in me losing control of the car violently. Despite feeling as if I had the ability, I clearly didn't.
I was not driving like an idiot. The brake reaction test remained quite consistent with the previous result, although Aoibhinn felt the task becoming much more difficult.
Aoibhinn did not feel capable of continuing and it was agreed that she should take no further part in the test, as it would prove little. So it was down to me to down the last two drinks in the interests of science. After the last two drinks I was reading 0.31 per cent on the breathalyser, so I was now almost four times over the limit.
My last attempt at the cones test was a shambles. Despite years of experience at such task I could not longer judge distances or my own speed correctly, yet found the whole thing funny. My control of the skid car was equally pathetic. I reacted slowly to the skid and according to Brennan I was now presenting a serious danger. I measured 0.77 seconds to react on my final braking test but this was giving the task my full if somewhat diminished attention. I would imagine that the standard distractions within a car and on the road would only make this worse.
The result of this experiment was clear, and worse than we could have expected. After just two drinks we were not only illegal to drive, but we clearly had seriously impeded driving ability. This became significantly worse after two more.
The most worrying self-reported effect was bravado. I felt more capable than I normally do to tackle the tasks and displayed a cockiness that horrified me on reflection. I would consider myself a professional driver with years of road testing experience under my belt, but after alcohol I was as much of an incompetent fool as anyone else who sits into a car with alcohol in their system will undoubtedly be.