Driving after drinking moderately; or, how do you know where .08 is?

[Alobar]

When im too drunk to think I am capable of convincing a police officer I am not drunk, then I dont drive. I also dont drive stupid tho, I prolly drive better drunk than I do sober. Sober, Im talking on my cell phone, speeding, and swearing at the guy doing the same thing next to me, who just cut me off. Slightly inotixcated, I drive with the radio turned off, drive under the speed limit, keep an obscene amount of space between me and the car in front of me (which isnt hard to do at 3am) and dont drive on the freeway.
<font color="white"> flame on</font>

[benza13]

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here is a chart from the Dept of Health and Human Services. But, all it could take is one drink - so I don't risk it.

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I agree that "all it could take is one drink" but I also see this type of thinking as a problem. People drink at bars and they drive home for the most part afterwards, that's a fact possibly a sad one for some people who have lost loved ones to drunk driving accidents. I think people should have some way of figuring out whether they are over the legal limit WITHOUT involving the police.

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You can buy a personal breathalyzer. If the chart is not good enough and this is a big concern, I would think this is a good option.

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I wanted to get one of these because I thought it would be fun to play with when I was drunk. Apparently you have to have stopped drinking for 30 minutes before the results are accurate. That sucks.

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I had a friend that had one and we were playing with it one night, trying to see who was drunkest. Pretty much all of us are blowing .12 and we can't seem to get any higher than this. Turns out most of these things only go slightly over the legal limit so that people can't play these kind of games and then sue the company when someone dies, they can only be used to see if driving is safe.

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But, all it could take is one drink - so I don't risk it.

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Wendy Hamilton? Is that you?

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If you mean this Wendy Hamilton, then YES!

[Jeebus]

For me it is two or three beers as long as I didn't drink them real fast. If I have been there for three or four hours then I can normally get a 4th and feel confident. If you don't know when you have a buzz and shouldn't be driving you really shouldn't drink.

[CanKid]

i drink and drive, but i dont drunk and drive

[Ulysses]

Godfather,

"I'm mostly curious about how you guys make the call for yourselves as to whether you are able to drive or not."

Something like this: A couple of drinks, I am fine to drive. Have a few more, I am not fine to drive. Have a few more, then I am fine to drive again.

This is why I don't drive at all when I'm going to drink.

[bobbyi]

I got pulled over once and blew a .078. Fortunately, the cop let me go without even a ticket despite the fact that he said I was also speeding, swerving over the median, had expired tabs... But I was really surprised that I was so close to the limit. I had stopped drinking hours before and hadn't even had that much. I assumed I was well under the limit and perfectly fine to drive. Obviously, I was wrong.

The lesson I learned is that .08 is much lower than I had thought. That scared me out of driving while even slightly intoxicated again. It's just a bad idea. Don't do it. One of my roommates didn't learn that lesson and I watched him have to pay tons of money in legal fees, go to coutrooms, and so forth for months. The ordeal was awful and all told can be extremely expensive. It's just not worth it. Even if you "know" that you are sober enough not to be hazard, the legal limit is quite low and if you get caught you will get completely [censored].

[The Goober]

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I'm mostly curious about how you guys make the call for yourselves as to whether you are able to drive or not. Does everybody just say "Well, one drink down, I'm not driving tonight?"

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I generally make this decision before I go out. I take cabs and busses a lot, just so that when I get where I'm going I don't have to count drinks, etc... Some of the time I find myself walking in the cold looking for a cab thinking "dammit I'm still sober, I shoulda just driven", but its better than the alternative. When I drive somewhere, I pretty much have to limit myself to 1 or 2 drinks at most. If I try to "walk the line" I'll pretty much always cross it and then convince myself that I didn't. In a drunken state, it's easy to convince yourself that you are fine, and the risk is worth it to save the pain of getting a cab and coming back the next day to get your car. It really sucks waking up the next morning with a hangover and only a vague recollection of driving home.

[tonypaladino]

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But, all it could take is one drink - so I don't risk it.

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I bet you got an A in 10th grade health.

[RunDownHouse]

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If you mean this Wendy Hamilton, then YES!

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No, I meant the Wendy Hamilton who recently ended her reign pushing neo-Prohibition.