Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/501315
XXI maltatoday, Sunday, 26 april 2015 Motoring Dehydration as bad as driving drunk A recent study showed that driv- ers who drank no more than 25ml of water per hour made the same number of mistakes on the road as those who were over the blood- alcohol limit. In each case, the number of mistakes made was twice the number made by well-hydrated motorists. Researchers at Loughborough University said the change was evident in those who were only deemed "mildly dehydrated". Ron Maughan, professor of sport and exercise nutrition, said the study showed that dehy- dration was an "unrecognised danger" for drivers. "We all deplore drink driving, but we don't usually think about the effects of other things that affect our driving skills, and one of those is not drinking and dehydration," he said. "There is no question that driving while incapable through drink or drugs increases the risk of accidents, but our findings highlight an unrecognised danger and suggest that drivers should be encouraged to make sure they are properly hydrated." The research team, whose re- sults were published in the Jour- nal of Physiology and Behaviour, carried out tests on male drivers using a driving simulator. Each volunteer used the simula- tor on a day when they were hydrated - which involved drink- ing 200ml (less than a cupful) every hour. The tests were then repeated on a "dry day", when the participants were given just 25ml of water an hour. The test included a simulated two-hour monotonous drive on a dual carriageway with slow- moving vehicles, which had to be overtaken. During the normal hy- dration test, there were 47 driving errors. That number rose to 101 when the men were dehydrated - the same mistake rate as that seen when drivers were either sleep deprived or at the blood- alcohol limit. The researchers, who said driver error accounted for 68 percent of all vehicle crashes in the UK, concluded that dehydration led to reduced brain activity, as well as a drop in alertness and short- term memory. Each of the 12 participants in the study was an experienced driver who had held a driving licence for more than two years, driving at least two hours per week. The researchers wrote: "Mild hypohydration [dehydration] can cause symptoms such as headache, weakness, dizziness and fatigue, and generally makes people feel tired and lethargic, with lower self-reported rat- ings of alertness and ability to concentrate. "Body water losses have been shown to impair performance in a variety of tests of both physi- cal and mental performance." They added: "The level of de- hydration induced in the present study was mild and could easily happen to drivers with limited access to f luid over the course of a busy working day." The team called for a public awareness campaign to encour- age drivers to keep themselves hydrated. They wrote: "There is no question that drink driving and driving while tired increases the risk of road accidents. "Given the present findings, perhaps some attention should also be directed to encouraging appropriate hydration among drivers.' Chinese entrepreneur buys BMW with small change Employees of a Chinese car showroom were left f labber- gasted this week after a woman marched into their shop and paid for a luxury BMW with small change. The businesswoman, who was named only as Ms Li, report- edly turned up at a dealership in the city of Zhengzhou and used 100,000 small denomina- tion bank notes to purchase the BMW 730Li. The wrinkled green notes – each worth one yuan or around 10p – came to a total of around £10,000 and weighed around 220lb Ms Li paid the balance on a credit card, according to reports. The stunt came at a price for the dealership's employees. It took 20 of them around six hours to count Ms Qiong's for- tune, the South China Morning Post reported. In an interview with the Zhengzhou Evening Post, Jia Tinghai, the dealership's marketing director, captured her reaction to the purchase in three words. "Oh my God," she said. Ms Li told local media that because she was "often busy she had decided to keep the banknotes until she was able to spend them all at once when buying a car". The incident follows reports earlier this year that a man from Hebei province hadused nothing but coins to buy a car costing more than 50,000 yuan. "He said he'll pay in petty cash. I thought it was old and small notes, but never expected they are all in small denomi- nation coins," one of the sales team was quoted as saying.