# Family of woman responsible for deadly crash w/ .19 BAC insists she was not an alcoholic. Possible? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 8, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-of-woman-responsible-for-deadly-crash-w-19-bac-insists-she-was-not-an-alcoholic-possible/505755 "2009-08-08T17:51:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Dripping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d2c977/32.png) [@Dripping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dripping)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-of-woman-responsible-for-deadly-crash-w-19-bac-insists-she-was-not-an-alcoholic-possible/505755/41 "2009-08-10T14:38:40Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > I’ll nitpick further by stating that if she was of low body weight/small stature she would be more drunk from 10 however many shots than a man a foot taller and twice her weight. From the photos, she appeared to be about 5’9" and chunky, so roughly 160-180 lbs. Also, the hubby already admitted that they routinely carried an opened bottle of vodka back and forth from the campground to home, so its a bit ludicrous for him to now argue that the bottle found at the crash site was just there coincidentally. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![MeanOldLady](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/meanoldlady/32/10737_2.png) [@MeanOldLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MeanOldLady)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-of-woman-responsible-for-deadly-crash-w-19-bac-insists-she-was-not-an-alcoholic-possible/505755/42 "2009-08-10T14:52:18Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > Its not THAT different, unless your just nitpicking for the sake of doing so. > > So, she needed roughly 10 drinks of high test stuff vs 13 drinks of low test stuff. Whoop de do. No kidding. Standard issue is about 80 proof, but even at 90 or so, big deal. Can’t remain conscious after 10 drinks? That’s what we call breakfast 'round these parts. Anyway, if I didn’t know anything about the story other than her BAC, I would think it was more likely that she wasn’t a chronic alcoholic. Often these lightweights go partying and don’t realize how the alcohol will catch up with them, and bad things happen. Teenagers do this kind of crap all the time. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-of-woman-responsible-for-deadly-crash-w-19-bac-insists-she-was-not-an-alcoholic-possible/505755/43 "2009-08-10T15:03:32Z")
Being as I live in the area where this crash occurred, it’s received huge media attention here. My opinion from this is that the husband is still in denial over the deaths. He just doesn’t want to believe what happened. ---
**Author:** ![Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Skald\_the\_Rhymer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skald_the_Rhymer)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-of-woman-responsible-for-deadly-crash-w-19-bac-insists-she-was-not-an-alcoholic-possible/505755/44 "2009-08-10T15:19:52Z")
> [@SmashTheState](#): > > _An unsual symptom of certain people with severe candidiasis is the presence of alcohol in the blood stream even when none has been consumed. First discovered in Japan, and called “drunk disease,” this condition creates strains of candida albicans which turn acetaldehyde (which is the chemical created by sugar and yeast fermentation) into ethanol. This is a process well understood by distillers of homemade brew. These candidiasis patients whose yeast turns sugar into alcohol are chronically drunk. They have developed what is only half-jokingly called “auto-brewery syndrome”._ > > [Candidiasis ... page 2](http://www.liferesearchuniversal.com/candidiasis2.html) It’s probably not fair of me to me so quickly dismissive of that site based largely on the number of spelling and style errors I note at a glance. Fortunately I am a jerk and will do it anyway. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-of-woman-responsible-for-deadly-crash-w-19-bac-insists-she-was-not-an-alcoholic-possible/505755/45 "2009-08-10T17:21:35Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > I could probably chugg down 6 to 12 oz of vodka and hit the highway and make it a fair distance before I was mentally and physically drunk off my ass. Chug _vodka_??? :eek: Jeebus, I could try but would probably barf before I hit the 5 oz. mark. Spirits are too harsh going down. It would vaporize my nose hairs! My ex’s step-dad was a serious alcoholic. But very old and retired and had no car or driver’s licence (he took taxi’s everywhere). He wouldn’t have a glass of wine with dinner, he would have a _bottle_. And that was after two or three cocktails as an appertif and the bottle of wine he’d polished off before even coming to meet us for dinner. Other than the fact that his eyeballs looked like they were floating, he could carry on relatively normally. Most wait staff would still serve him long after he should have been cut off, because he exhibited virtually no signs of intoxication, until his motor skills would _suddenly_ turn to mush. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [August 10, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-of-woman-responsible-for-deadly-crash-w-19-bac-insists-she-was-not-an-alcoholic-possible/505755/46 "2009-08-10T17:31:48Z")
> [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](#): > > Chug _vodka_??? :eek: Jeebus, I could try but would probably barf before I hit the 5 oz. mark. Spirits are too harsh going down. It would vaporize my nose hairs! I mentioned this in the Pit thread on the topic - my brother-in-law would chug down vodka when alone, as his drink-of-choice in being a closet alcoholic. We would all drink wine heartily when together to get through the family gathering, so his behavior didn’t stick out. Other physical symptoms? Who’s going to make fun of a guy for having rosacea (red and irregularly-textured forehead, nose, cheeks) and a bit of a belly plus digestive issues. He and my sister-in-law thought (or claimed they thought) the gut issues were irritable bowel syndrome and planned to make a doctor’s appointment. Turns out it was alcoholic cirrhosis, and so we learned that he was an alcoholic when we got the call that he was in the ER with a failing liver. (He lived; his liver had enough time to “recover” though he’s considered disabled due to that and various other health issues that resulted from his very long hospital stay.) I definitely believe that other relatives of hers may have been fooled. As for her husband, who knows? If she was sneaky enough to hide her drinking well, then maybe. Perhaps she was jonesing for a drink after limited opportunities to sneak one on the trip, and slammed a mess of vodka - on probably an empty stomach - trying to “make up for lost time” not drinking. ---
**Author:** ![slime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c89c15/32.png) [@slime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slime)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-of-woman-responsible-for-deadly-crash-w-19-bac-insists-she-was-not-an-alcoholic-possible/505755/47 "2009-08-11T00:41:40Z")
As the old saying goes, “I never knew he drank until I saw him sober.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/family-of-woman-responsible-for-deadly-crash-w-19-bac-insists-she-was-not-an-alcoholic-possible/505755.md?page=2)