Chronic DUI driver gets two years in prison: "A breath test an hour later showed that his blood-alcohol level was .22 percent, nearly three times the .08 percent level that constitutes drunken driving, authorities said." This was at 8 am.
When I took my first driving test, the only questions I missed were the DUI questions. It wasn't going to affect me, so I didn't pay much attention. That has remained true throughout my life - I avoid driving after drinking and I wait two hours per drink before driving if I absolutely HAVE to drive. So BAC hasn't been on my radar.
But this article piqued my interest and I looked up BAC. I was a bit surprised. By one source, it takes 45 minutes to lower BAC by .01, so the driver in this article would take over 16 hours to completely sober up. Granted, getting drunk to the .22 BAC level is a lot of hard work (depending on the guy's weight, it would take him 6 to 15 drinks in an hour, or 6 to 15 drinks more than his body broke down over the time he was drinking, to reach .22), so you could be talking a full 24 hour cycle, 8 hours of drinking to get that drunk, 16 hours to sober up. It would take him 11 1/4 hours to drop from a .22 BAC to the .07 BAC level that would make it legal to drive again, over 16 hours to totally sober up.
Women have it tougher, unless they bulk up. A little 120 lb. woman would reach a BAC of .22 with just 6 drinks. According to drinkinganddriving.org, an average person takes 45 minutes to lower their BAC by .01, so the woman would still need 11 1/4 hours to get down to the legal limit - although drivers are still impaired at .07, and can still be prosecuted for driving under the influence if they get into an incident behind the wheel - so the goal is to metabolize the alcohol down to a BAC of 0. From a BAC of .22, it takes 16 1/2 hours to drop to 0. Yikes. It's likely we've got a lot of drunk drivers in the morning commute.
Even the responsible drinker who walks to the bar or has a designated driver needs to count drinks if they're planning to drive in the morning. Put another way, if someone wants to wake up sober in 8 hours, the maximum BAC that can be metabolized over 8 hours of sleeping is about 10.66, 3 drinks for a little guy, 7 drinks for a 240 pound fellow, 2 1/2 drinks for a 100 lb. woman, 6 drinks for a 240 pound woman. So, for fun, I put together this handy little chart.
When I took my first driving test, the only questions I missed were the DUI questions. It wasn't going to affect me, so I didn't pay much attention. That has remained true throughout my life - I avoid driving after drinking and I wait two hours per drink before driving if I absolutely HAVE to drive. So BAC hasn't been on my radar.
But this article piqued my interest and I looked up BAC. I was a bit surprised. By one source, it takes 45 minutes to lower BAC by .01, so the driver in this article would take over 16 hours to completely sober up. Granted, getting drunk to the .22 BAC level is a lot of hard work (depending on the guy's weight, it would take him 6 to 15 drinks in an hour, or 6 to 15 drinks more than his body broke down over the time he was drinking, to reach .22), so you could be talking a full 24 hour cycle, 8 hours of drinking to get that drunk, 16 hours to sober up. It would take him 11 1/4 hours to drop from a .22 BAC to the .07 BAC level that would make it legal to drive again, over 16 hours to totally sober up.
Women have it tougher, unless they bulk up. A little 120 lb. woman would reach a BAC of .22 with just 6 drinks. According to drinkinganddriving.org, an average person takes 45 minutes to lower their BAC by .01, so the woman would still need 11 1/4 hours to get down to the legal limit - although drivers are still impaired at .07, and can still be prosecuted for driving under the influence if they get into an incident behind the wheel - so the goal is to metabolize the alcohol down to a BAC of 0. From a BAC of .22, it takes 16 1/2 hours to drop to 0. Yikes. It's likely we've got a lot of drunk drivers in the morning commute.
Even the responsible drinker who walks to the bar or has a designated driver needs to count drinks if they're planning to drive in the morning. Put another way, if someone wants to wake up sober in 8 hours, the maximum BAC that can be metabolized over 8 hours of sleeping is about 10.66, 3 drinks for a little guy, 7 drinks for a 240 pound fellow, 2 1/2 drinks for a 100 lb. woman, 6 drinks for a 240 pound woman. So, for fun, I put together this handy little chart.
How many drinks can an average person sleep off in 8 hours?
Caveats:
Alcohol metabolism varies from person to person. Dehydration, overall health, presence of other drugs in the bloodstream, including prescription and over-the-counter medications, etc., can impact blood alcohol absorption and metabolism. This chart is not advice for a specific person but merely a representation of assumptions about an "average" person.
Methodology:
Blood alcohol level continues rising after the last drink is ingested, so I assumed 7 hours to metabolize the drinks consumed. In 7 hours, at a rate of .01 BAC per hour, an average person can drop from a BAC of .093 to .00. Using the charts from drinkinganddriving.org, I divided the BAC per drink by weight into the .093 BAC that can be metabolized in 7 hours, arriving at the number of drinks metabolized in 7 hours.
Blood alcohol level continues rising after the last drink is ingested, so I assumed 7 hours to metabolize the drinks consumed. In 7 hours, at a rate of .01 BAC per hour, an average person can drop from a BAC of .093 to .00. Using the charts from drinkinganddriving.org, I divided the BAC per drink by weight into the .093 BAC that can be metabolized in 7 hours, arriving at the number of drinks metabolized in 7 hours.
Most people do not slam 2 to 5 drinks, one right after another, and go to bed. But if you go to bed at 10 pm and drive to work at 6 am, an average man can only sleep off 3 or 4 drinks. Figure you get off work, go to dinner, stop at the bar at 8 and leave at 10... I never realized how few drinks an average man can sleep off between 10 pm and the 6 am commute. If you're talking about the partying youngsters staying 'til closing time at 2 am, even a big guy can only sleep off 2 drinks before morning commute, and most folks don't stay at a bar 'til 2 am for just 2 drinks. Add in the variability of individual alcohol metabolism and the fact that a patron doesn't usually know if a mixed drink contains exactly 1 oz of liquor or if a glass of wine is exactly 5 ounces, and it's tough for a person to know their exact BAC when they leave a bar or party, let alone 8 hours later when leaving for work.
Maybe you'd find these charts more realistic:
How many drinks can an average person metabolize between the 6 pm happy hour and the 6 am commute?
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