November 7, 201411 yr My buddy and I were having this discussion as we sat at a local bar during the Bengals game last night. On any given night, how many people that are out drinking at bars leave and drive legally drunk? As in, if they happened to be given a breathalyzer they'd blow over a .08. We both agreed that it's probably a significant %, somewhere in the 40-50% range (if not higher), and the more we thought about it, the scarier a thought it became. What say you BGP?
November 7, 201411 yr I'm fairly confident that I could blow a .08 and still be perfectly fine to drive...
November 7, 201411 yr I think you have to describe the type of patrons and any particular event. Bengals game crowd? 40%+ Local yocal bar with regulars? 25% maybe
November 7, 201411 yr I think the percentage would be a lot higher than what you guys are thinking. An average sized human only has to drink 2 beers in an hour or so to be over the legal limit. If you are out at a bar for drinks I believe many people exceed that pace and then drive home. I'm guessing more in the 75-80% range.
November 7, 201411 yr Relevant: Several years ago a friend of mine had a college football bowl game party. Probably 20 or so guys were there over the course of the day, including a neighbor of my friend's who happened to be a police officer (for obvious reasons, I won't say what department he worked for). He had a breathalyzer in his cruiser, which he was able to take home with him on off-hours, and we conducted an "experiment" of sorts, by having three people take a breathalyzer test immediately after finishing their FIRST alcoholic drink of the day. We intentionally checked three different people drinking three different alcohols...if memory serves, the drinks were a rum & diet, a Budweiser, and a bourbon on the rocks (yours truly). The beer drinker and the bourbon drinker both blew just over .08, and were therefore "legally drunk", and the rum & diet drinker was within his legal limits to drive. However, the twist was the fact that the officer administered field sobriety tests to all three of us the way he would have if he had pulled us over and suspected us of being drunk, and all three of us passed the field sobriety tests.
November 7, 201411 yr One beer put someone over .08?!?! 1. Was this person eight years old? 2. Did this person weigh 50 lbs? 3. Was this person Randy Parker?
November 7, 201411 yr I think the percentage would be a lot higher than what you guys are thinking. An average sized human only has to drink 2 beers in an hour or so to be over the legal limit. If you are out at a bar for drinks I believe many people exceed that pace and then drive home. I'm guessing more in the 75-80% range. This is my thought process.
November 7, 201411 yr The Immediately After is what probably skewed the test, it takes a little while for it to have an effect on you. You could slam down a bottle of bourbon and immediately pass a test, wait 20 minutes or so and you'd fail.
November 7, 201411 yr The Immediately After is what probably skewed the test, it takes a little while for it to have an effect on you. You could slam down a bottle of bourbon and immediately pass a test, wait 20 minutes or so and you'd fail. ....I failed the breathalyzer in our "experiment" immediately after having my first drink.
November 7, 201411 yr Author I think the percentage would be a lot higher than what you guys are thinking. An average sized human only has to drink 2 beers in an hour or so to be over the legal limit. If you are out at a bar for drinks I believe many people exceed that pace and then drive home. I'm guessing more in the 75-80% range. That was our initial observation/conclusion. The 40-50% number factors in car-pooling.
November 7, 201411 yr ....I failed the breathalyzer in our "experiment" immediately after having my first drink. I was talking more about the sobriety test, the Portable Breath Test he gave you isn't admissible in court. That's why they are only used as a guide for police and not a determining factor. The Breathalyzer at the Station or Jail is the one that's used in court.
November 7, 201411 yr Author I'm fairly confident that I could blow a .08 and still be perfectly fine to drive... Same here, and I'm sure that's the case with a good deal of folks.
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