The Impact of Alcohol on Your Motor Skills
Most people enjoy the effects of alcohol – especially the fact that it “loosens you up.” However, these very same effects can also seriously impair your decision making and motor skills. This is good enough reason not to get behind the wheel with a blood alcohol content of .08 percent or higher. The bottom line is that if you have had alcohol, it is not safe to operate a motor vehicle.
Below are some reasons of how alcohol can impact your motor skills, resulting in a drunk driving arrest:
Reaction Time
Consumption of alcohol increases the amount of time it takes to process information that inputted to your brain. It also decreases the accuracy of processing the same information that gets transmitted throughout your entire central nervous system. This reduction of time, combined with loss of coordination, can result in a serious accident and a driving while intoxicated (DWI) arrest.
Muscle Control
Alcohol acts as a depressant on your central nervous system. This means that messages carried to and from your brain and the muscles and nerves is slowed down or improperly transmitted when you consume alcoholic beverages. Alcohol can also dull signals, such as pain and other sensations, that come from the brain. The more alcohol you consume, the more severe these effects will be. If you get into an accident while operating a car intoxicated, you will have a decreased awareness of injury as well.
Impaired Vision
Alcohol consumption can also impair your vision, which can in turn reduce your effective motor control. Some ways that alcohol can impair your vision include:
- Narrow your field of vision
- Increase your susceptibility to glares
- Decrease your ability to differentiate colors
The combination of all of these vision impairments makes it more likely for you to make errors in your judgment while exercising motor control because you cannot see clearly what is going on around you.
Vigilance
Your level of alertness or vigilance is what keeps you watchful while driving. For example, if you are approaching a cross walk, you need to be hyper vigilant that pedestrians may be crossing in order to avoid hitting them. Vigilance issues in a person can happen at blood alcohol content levels of .03 percent.
Call a DWI Attorney in New Jersey
If you or someone you know has been issued a DWI citation or arrested for drunk driving in New Jersey, an experienced attorney can help. Call Beninato & Matrafajlo Attorneys at Law, LLC at 908-355-7100 to schedule a free, complimentary consultation with our legal team today.
Dan T. Matrafajlo, Esq. is the Managing Member and Lead Partner at Beninato & Matrafajlo, Attorneys at Law, LLC, a New Jersey-based personal injury law firm with offices in Elizabeth and East Brunswick. With over two decades of experience representing clients in complex matters—including motor vehicle accidents, workers’ compensation, and wrongful death cases—he has recovered over $100 million on behalf of his clients and is known for securing significant results. He has also helped shape New Jersey personal injury law through notable Appellate Division decisions such as Hardison v. King and Frenklakh v. Lojek, with his litigation work featured in the New Jersey Law Journal, underscoring his authority in the field.
Mr. Matrafajlo was recognized as a Super Lawyers® Rising Stars honoree from 2012 to 2017 and is a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum—an honor reserved for attorneys who have achieved multi-million-dollar verdicts and settlements. Combining deep legal expertise with a client-focused approach, he provides strategic, results-driven representation while guiding clients through every stage of the legal process. He earned his Juris Doctor from the University of Miami School of Law and is admitted to practice in both New Jersey and New York.
