Doubtful. I was at a CLE once where we had a cocktail hour afterwards and then were invited to test our BAC on the same machine used by the cops (which, incidentally, is the latest in 1982 technology, just so you know!). My friend and I had 2 beers apiece in an hour, with some food. I blew a .026, and she, being significantly heavier than me, blew a .00! Both of us were mildly buzzed. I can’t imagine how hammered I would be in order to blow a .08.
Been there, done that and don’t want to repeat it.
Now I can’t drink much anymore so I don’t think I could voluntarily get to the .10 level but I do notice a definite increase in driving focus after light drinking. Not sure why this is but I actually enjoy the act of driving after a couple of beers. The feeling decreases as the amount of alcohol increases.
In my boneheaded immature teenage years I got away with driving while pretty damn hammered, in the sense that there are no dead or maimed bodies in my past. But there were some crumpled fenders.
Of course I also once drove through the mountains while so sleepy that I was closing my eyes and dozing on the straight stretches (“…just for a few seconds…”) and on another occasion coasted w/o power down the road this was taken from (contains some rather spectacular hairpin curves) in a big-ass Pontiac with a nonworking alternator, no brakes no power steering and no headlights or windshield wipers, in a snowstorm.
I have no damn business not being dead.
I have also driven stoned (marijuana) and tripping (LSD). Of the three, you’d be by far the safest as a passenger when I was tripping. Then pot. Alcohol most dangerous.
I don’t think I could drive safely—too many variables. No one can guarantee me no animal will run out into the road, no obstacle will fall into my path, my car won’t blow a tire, nothing unusual will happen to force me into making a snap decision. I’ve been driving for 30 years and most things have happened to me and I know if I’m preoccupied or sleepy, I’m not at my best. I can’t trust to luck to make me safe if I’ve been drinking.
The point is, by the time you get to .08 your judgment is impaired to the point where you just think you’re driving OK.
You’re in denial, but I understand as you really don’t know-(Same with cell phone users after a couple minutes talking, when they start “zoning out”).
Try this- get to .10. Find a place legal to drive, on private property, but where it’s safe. Have a bud get into the back seat and film you, and make notes.
You are impaired, trust me. They don’t call me DrDeth for nothing…
The test subjects were the magazine’s writers, who I assume are a slightly better than average bunch of drivers, and if they are like any other magazine writer I have met, heavy drinkers.
They did also discover (IIRC) that a pot buzz did not effect their motor control, but they didn’t give a shit one way or the other while buzzed.
Do you think you can drive safely with a 0.10 BAC level?
Yes, but I drink fairly regularly, my fiance rarely drinks and she’d be a slobering drunk at .1 …I find it endearing so it’s too bad she doesn’t more often.
I saw an ‘extreme police chase show’ last night and a drunk woman with 19 previous DUI’s was trying to escape in her bronco only to roll it going about 100 mpr, she survived and had blew a .44 when they got to her. That impressed the hell out of me.