Monday, December 20, 2010

WWI-Walking While Impaired


The good news is people for the most part are no longer drinking and driving. Society frowns upon this and it is considered highly taboo. Recently it was reported that drinking and walking is said to be as dangerous as drinking and driving. Now not only must we take an intoxicated person’s keys, we must either walk them home or remove their shoes.

According to the Canadian Council of Motor Transport Administrators, 40% of all pedestrians killed on Canadian roads in 2007 had alcohol in their system. That’s a substantial number. The bigger question is why are we all walking around drunk? This doesn’t happen in Toronto. No we take the subway, shuttle or TTC when drunk. But for the rest of us this new phenomenon is making it necessary to assign designated walkers to the intoxicated pedestrian. WWI will no longer be an acronym for World War One. Someday soon a person could conceivably be charged with a WWI; “walking while impaired”.

Medications carry warnings such as “May cause drowsiness. Do not operate machinery.” In light of this new finding perhaps now is the time for alcohol to carry a similar warning: May slow reflexes; stunt judgement; impair coordination and balance; has been known to cause pregnancy; do not exceed recommended amount as this could cause optical illusions such as people appearing much better looking than they would be if you were sober; do not eat after drinking contents of bottle due to a high probability you may very well wind up wearing what you ate; may cause memory loss or worse, memory loss; and for God’s sake do not walk anywhere.

Slipping in the shower is the number one cause of accidents in the home. Now I have not let this statistic deter me and therefore continue to shower. As you can plainly see this makes me somewhat of a risk taker. Wine and walking is my thing. I’ll take my chances.

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