Sunday, September 27, 2009

Good news for drinkers

How many times have you read about a drunk driving accident in which the drunk driver was just fine but the other driver didn't make it? It always seems like such a cruel twist of fate that the person most likely responsible for creating the deadly situation survives while someone else has to die. Turns out, there is a medical explanation for this phenomenon. Alcohol may protect the brain from traumatic injury. It's always interesting to me when anecdotal observations like this turn out to be true and to have reasonable explanations.

I think the lesson here is that drunk driving saves lives, just the wrong lives. Obviously, people still shouldn't drive drunk. But maybe getting a little soused before being a passenger on a car trip isn't such a bad idea. And maybe we should re-think open container bans for passengers. We make passengers buckle up, so why not make them drink up? It's for their own protection.

I wonder how MADD will respond?

1 comment:

Unknown said...

That is a wonderful and funny post.

I'd heard it was because when drunk the person is more relaxed, perhaps even passed out at the moment of impact, which aids survival. But this idea about the brain is even better.

 
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