Holiday DUI’s
‘Tis the season for DUI’s too. Holiday parties, televised bowl games, and other events provide more occasions than do other times of the year for drinking too much and then driving. Unfortunately, the Christmas spirit does not provide any leniency when a DUI occurs at this time of the year.
“DUI patrols” tend to increase during this time of year, especially whenever an event occurs that in the popular mind tends to be associated with excessive alcohol consumption. New Year’s Eve and the Super Bowl are obvious examples, but a purely local event (in this area, a televised Gonzaga basketball game) can have the same effect. There are some things that it may be helpful to keep in mind.
The clear best course of action, obviously, is not to drink at all when one has to drive. Next is to limit consumption to an amount that will not cause a DUI. However, anyone reading this piece probably has a concern that his or her drinking may stray beyond the line (wherever it may be) at which alcohol consumption plus driving is still insufficient for a DUI. Implicit in the last sentence is the variable effect of alcohol consumption from one individual to the next, not only in terms of conduct but also in terms of blood alcohol content (BAC). The same volume of an alcoholic beverage may lead one person to register a BAC of .08* (the legal limit in Idaho and most other states at which being “under the influence” is presumed), but a second person to register a BAC of .06 and a third person to register a BAC of .10.
Never drink on an empty stomach. A full belly, in addition to whatever contentment it provides, tends to absorb some alcohol (which would otherwise be absorbed by the blood and relatively quickly). Any prolonged period (at least an hour) of no further consumption of alcoholic beverages before leaving the dinner, party or other event (and especially if some water or other non-alcoholic beverage is substituted during that period) can be helpful. It takes time for alcohol to be absorbed by blood, and most people will reach their maximum BAC score in about an hour after alcohol consumption is terminated. Thereafter one’s BAC declines (slowly). So the worst time to submit to BAC testing is 45 minutes to an hour after one has stopped drinking.
Drive with scrupulous care and attention to the rules of the road. As almost everyone has experienced while driving late at night, the ratio of police cars to other vehicles seems to go up, and one can get stopped at that time for conduct that rarely draws any law enforcement attention during daytime hours (for example, making a wide turn into the “wrong” lane). Anyone driving late at night with a broken headlight or taillight or other glaring mechanical vehicular defect should re-read the first sentence of the previous paragraph, and should assume that he or she will be stopped.
In an up-coming blog, I will discuss what to do when stopped under suspicion of driving under the influence.
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