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ALCOHOL
Do you know what your alcohol limit is? In part, the law says
you’re legally intoxicated if your blood alcohol concentration
is .08% or greater. A person does not usually know what his or
her blood alcohol concentration is before they get behind the
wheel, unless they're absolutely sober.
Most impaired drivers don’t think they're "drunk" before getting
behind the wheel. People generally think of the term “drunk” as
staggering or falling down. A person’s judgment is usually the
first thing affected if too much alcohol is consumed so
assessing a level of intoxication after consuming alcoholic
beverages is not recommended. This might be why nearly half of
fatal crashes in Oregon are alcohol-related.
The law doesn’t require a person to be "drunk" to be arrested
and charged with Driving Under the Influence of Intoxicants.
Oregon law states a person commits the crime of DUII if the
person has a blood alcohol concentration of .08% or greater, or
is under the influence of alcohol, controlled substances,
inhalants or any combination thereof.
So how much is too much? Research has shown that consuming even
small quantities of alcohol can cause slowed reaction skills and
increased risk taking. Determining how much is too much is based
on a variety of factors such as quantity and type of alcohol,
sex, weight, metabolism rate and time. A 100-pound female might
become impaired after having only two drinks while a 170-pound
male might not. Knowing your own limit is every driver’s
responsibility.
Generally speaking, the average person metabolizes one drink per
hour. Consuming more than one drink per hour will usually result
in an increased blood alcohol concentration over time. One
“drink” usually means one 12-ounce beer at 4% alcohol, one
five-ounce glass of wine at 12% alcohol or one-shot of distilled
spirits at 40% alcohol. Each contains approximately the same
amount of ethanol alcohol. Considering many types of beer
contain higher alcohol concentrations (and are oftentimes served
in 16-ounce glasses), and mixed drinks sometimes have more than
one-shot of distilled spirits, it is sobering to realize that a
person might have consumed twice the average drink by only
having one.
In Oregon, police do not give roadside breath tests to measure a
suspected driver’s blood alcohol concentration. Instead, they
are trained to detect signs of impairment and administer
standardized field sobriety tests to confirm if alcohol or other
drugs are impairing a driver to a perceivable degree. A driver
arrested for DUII is then offered a chemical test to determine
his or her blood alcohol concentration.
To avoid the expensive and humiliating experience of being
arrested for DUII by the police, always play it safe before
drinking and driving: designate a sober person to drive if you
plan on drinking, never drink on an empty stomach and never
drink alcohol while taking certain medications. If you begin to
feel the effects of alcohol, it’s time to arrange for someone
else to drive.
Sgt. Lance Inman
Traffic Safety Unit
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