How drugs and alcohol can affect your safety

  • Published
  • By Neil Townley
  • 17th Training Wing Safety
Alcohol and drugs affect your brain, alter your perceptions, and most importantly, affect your judgment.

Drowning, crashes, falls and burning accidents occur in almost 45 percent of the time when drugs and alcohol are in play. Let's take a look at some Air Force mishap reports that involved bad judgment resulting from alcohol and drug use.

Person one was visiting her hometown during her days off. After spending the evening with three other friends, consuming alcoholic beverages, she decided to have one of those friends drive her 2001 Mitsubishi convertible. While driving, her friend deviated from the road and side-swiped the railing off a one lane bridge, bouncing between the left and right side railing, then swerving of the bridge striking two trees, a utility pole and a boat that was on a trailer parked along the road's shoulder. The driver fled the scene while the rest of the occupants were transported to the local hospital and evaluated for head trauma. They were lucky they survived.

Person two attended an Independence Day party located at a private residence. He arrived at 1: 30 p.m. with his spouse and a keg of beer. After unloading and tapping it, he went swimming was in and out of the pool throughout the day while consuming alcohol. At 6:15p.m., some of his friends decided to drive to a local stand to purchase fireworks. At 6:20 p.m., approximately 35 minutes since he was last seen, his spouse began ask other if they had seen him. Some thought he had gone with the group to purchase fireworks. Minutes later, everyone joined the search for him. At 6:35 p.m., his spouse saw him lying at the bottom of the pool.

Person three met a co-worker at a club around 6:15 p.m. after a squadron training day. Having split a pitcher of beer they left the club at around 7:30 p.m. and proceeded to a residence to ride ATVs. While traveling on a narrow dirt road at a high rate of speed, the co-worker, sitting on the passenger seat, asked the driver to slow down. But before the driver could respond, he left the roadway and hit a tree. Both were ejected. When the co-worker finally came to, she dialed 911 and started performing CPR on him, but was too late.

Person four was chatting on a social media site with a co-worker. He mentioned drinking and calling a taxi to take him to a local bar at 9:30 p.m. The driver remembers picking him up and that he was lightly dressed. After a night of drinking, person four left the bar at approximately 1:00 a.m. No one from the bar remembers seeing him get into a vehicle and he did not call a cab. During interviews, it was identified that he enjoyed taking walks and had been known to walk the 1.3 mile stretch from his residence to local bars. At the time that he left the bar, the temperature was 7 degrees Fahrenheit with five miles per hour wind speed, dropping the wind chill to -5 degrees Fahrenheit. That evening at 5:15 p.m., a local resident saw him lying on a snow-covered soccer field approximately 400 feet south of her house and called 911. The coroner was unable to determine the actual time of death due to the delayed onset of rigor mortis but pronounced him dead at 8:45 p.m.