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.

I think the reason the limit is that low is to stop you before you get so drunk that you can't function. .07 is legal and .08 isn't...there had to be a limit put at some point. However some people can't function at that level.

I had 4 beers last night throughout the game and am extremely confident I would have passed a sobriety test. I can't believe one beer is over the legal limit. Mind blowing.

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.

 

Your friend should have known that doing the test immediately would skew the results, because you will still have what is known as "residual mouth alcohol".

....I failed the breathalyzer in our "experiment" immediately after having my first drink.

 

See my last post. You probably took a "Preliminary Breath Test". PBT's do not account for "residual mouth alcohol" thus your results were higher because you took it immediately after drinking a beer.

 

If you had waited 15-20 minutes you would have probably gotten a more accurate result.

Your friend should have known that doing the test immediately would skew the results, because you will still have what is known as "residual mouth alcohol".

 

He was my friend's neighbor (the only reason I say that is because the guy was actually a pretty big tool)...but I agree. That fact makes it interesting to see police cruisers parked around the block from bars with their lights off and motor running...but a police officer would never do something like troll around a bar digging for a DUI arrest, would they? :whistling:

I had 4 beers last night throughout the game and am extremely confident I would have passed a sobriety test. I can't believe one beer is over the legal limit. Mind blowing.

 

To some police officers your above the legal limit if your not even driving the car. Which should be a p.I. I believe, but I was charged with dui once while getting out of the passenger seat.

 

He was my friend's neighbor (the only reason I say that is because the guy was actually a pretty big tool)...but I agree. That fact makes it interesting to see police cruisers parked around the block from bars with their lights off and motor running...but a police officer would never do something like troll around a bar digging for a DUI arrest, would they? :whistling:

 

Considering there are around 700000 police officers in this country I think it's safe to say that some hang around bars to get DUI arrests. But that's almost like saying some hang around the interstate to catch speeders.

 

Your not quite grasping what I'm saying. The fact that the PBT results are skewed if taken immediately wouldn't really have an impact on police officers trolling bars for DUI's. Between the time it takes for the person to leave the bar, and the police to stop the person the residual mouth alcohol shouldn't be an issue. Never mind the fact that generally other field sobriety tests are completed before a PBT. Also, any skewed results would be quickly proven incorrect with the subsequent breathalyzer or blood test.