Traffic Laws Frequently Violated by Impaired Drivers

Consuming alcohol causes many, if not all, of the skills that are required to operate an automobile to diminish or disappear entirely. Therefore, alcohol impaired drivers often cause automobile accidents.

Aside from getting into accidents, the effects of alcohol on an individual’s central nervous system and mental functions may cause drivers to violate any number of traffic laws, even if breaking the law is not their intention.

Drunk drivers are likely to be distracted by any number of concerns and will therefore forget–or sometimes, choose to ignore–some of the most fundamental of driving rules.

Impaired drivers are likely to run red lights and fail to stop at stop signs. When drunk, a driver loses a great deal of his peripheral vision and may fail to see that a light has turned red or that there is a stop sign on the sidewalk. As a drunk driver’s response time is greatly diminished, it is also more likely that he or she will not brake in time to stop at a red traffic signal.

Depending on the extent of their inebriation, drunk drivers are also highly likely to speed. Most drunk drivers are aware of their inebriated state and are eager to reach their destination as soon as possible, thus leading them to increase the velocity of their vehicle.

Other drunk drivers speed because they have lost the ability to judge how fast they are going and, in some cases, cannot even read the numbers on their speedometer. Still other drunk drivers will speed because the alcohol has provoked a state of belligerence, which leads them to engage in reckless behavior.

When a driver has consumed too much alcohol, he or she is also likely to violate some of the most basic driving laws, such as using a turn signal and wearing a seatbelt. This is because intoxication decreases an individual’s ability to concentrate on the task at hand and affects the memory process.

Traffic signs can be difficult for even a sober person to follow, but for a drunk driver, understanding the signage associated with a specific road or highway can become nearly impossible. This is one of the most dangerous aspects of drunk driving. When a person loses the ability to interpret the symbols, arrows, pictures, colors and words that are so important to successful transportation via a motor vehicle, he puts himself and his fellow drivers in danger.