Caution: Drinking and then driving is very dangerous. Your reflexes, perceptions, attentiveness, and judgment can be affected by even a small amount of alcohol. You can have a serious -- or even fatal -- collision if you drive after drinking. Do not drink and drive or ride with a driver who has been drinking. Ride home in a cab; or if you are with a group, designate a driver who will not drink.

Death and injury associated with drinking and driving is a global tragedy.

Alcohol affects four things that anyone needs to drive a vehicle: judgment, muscular coordination, vision, and attentiveness.

Police records show that almost 40 percent of all motor vehicle-related deaths involve alcohol. In most cases, these deaths are the result of someone who was drinking and driving. In recent years, more than 17,000 annual motor vehicle-related deaths have been associated with the use of alcohol, with about 250,000 people injured.

For persons under 21, it is against the law in every U.S. state to drink alcohol. There are good medical, psychological, and developmental reasons for these laws.

The obvious way to eliminate the leading highway safety problem is for people never to drink alcohol and then drive.

Medical research shows that alcohol in a person's system can make crash injuries worse, especially injuries to the brain, spinal cord, or heart. This means that when anyone who has been drinking -- driver or passenger -- is in a crash, that person's chance of being killed or permanently disabled is higher than if the person had not been drinking.