As a piece of advice, take these calculators with a grain of salt.
Your blood alcohol may vary wildly, as much as 50% in either direction from the calculator. There are a half dozen characteristics of human physiology that determine your absorption rates and elimination rates. Food, aspirin, and other prescription drugs can also influence absorption and elimination rates by more than 50%.
If you do enough self education, you'll also discover that there is a lot of misinformation being presented, and quite intentionally.
While I'm no proponent of driving under the influence, consider the following facts I've uncovered:
- NHTSA and DMV charts show # of drinks by weight you can consume before you are "likely DUI". Look closely. The measurements are often a single Oz for shots, a 3-4 oz glass of wine at 12% content, or 10-12 oz of 3.2% beer. The reality is a shot at a bar is going to be more like 1.25-1.5 oz, a restaurant pour of wine is closer to 6 oz and wine alcohol count can go as high as 18%, and personally I've never seen a 10 oz beer glass, most beer pours are 16 oz at around 5.5-5.9% alcohol. The reality is with two standard pour bar/restaurant drinks of any kind, most people are legally too drunk to drive. Why does the DMV chart say you can have three or four? Because its socially acceptable that a couple of drinks after work or with a meal are ok, while more than four are clearly "too much". If most people were aware that politicians had caved in to the political action committes and organizations to drop the BAC level to .08 or .05 in most states, and that they can experience the joy of a DUI arrest on a couple of glasses of beer, they'd push back on the law and the politicians would have to stand between the electorate and the special interest groups. Ouch.
- The NHTSA plays magic with the statistics. In states where the legal limit was dropped from .10 to .08, the statistics before and after are measured differently. Before the drop to .08, any driver involved in an accident with any suspected (note: not confirmed) alchol consumption, then that accident was "alcohol related". In other words, you have a beer and drive home, you're sitting at a red light and get rear ended by someone, its an alcohol related accident. After the drop, the stats used only measured an accident if the driver of the vehicle at fault measured high BAC. Wow, magically our accident rates dropped when we lowered the level to .08! Further the NHTSA may arbitrarily assign an 'alcohol related' check mark to any accident at their discretion. Wish I had that kind of leeway when I was in marketing. The best statistic I've seen describes how we started dropping legal DUI limits over the last 10 years and overall how fatal accidents have nosedived. This ignores mandatory seat belt laws, air bags in most cars, and improved vehicle structural engineering. Amazing how you can selectively pull pieces of statistics to create the story you want to tell.
- Arrest rates have not only not gone down since "tougher" new DUI levels and penalties have been introduced, they have gone up or remained approximately the same. Why? Most people dont know how much to drink is too much (for real), they arent aware of the level of penalties involved, and frankly, you're being asked to make a rational judgement of whether to drive or not at a time when your judgement is most impaired.
- By true statistically viable and explicable measurements, the vast majority (over 90%) of alcohol related accidents involve drivers at .15 and higher
- I have dozens of friends who are cops at the state and local level. They have a quota for DUI arrests. These are big money makers for the city/county/state due to the high fines and virtual impossibility/high cost for defense. They "xerox" symptoms: in other words, almost every arrest report they file shows the same symtoms. You'll have red watery eyes, stagger getting out of the car, almost fall down until helped by the officer, etc. You may find that you dont recall any of these things. That wont matter much in court. As far as the "drunk tests" go, these are not tests to determine if you are sober or not, they are evidence gathering to be used against you. When the cop asks you if you've had anything to drink and then asks you to step out of the car, he has already decided to arrest you. He will then run you through 10-20 minutes worth of exercises while you're scared/nervous and you will make mistakes, sober or not. The preliminary alcohol screening test they use at the scene of the arrest may be as much as 10-20% in error. By the time they get you to the station to administer the actual breathalyzer (which can still be off as much as 10%), your BAC may have risen significantly over what it was when you were driving.
- Penalties for a DUI are much higher than most people think. You will lose your drivers license for at least 90 days and for as long as a year. You will do community service (picking up trash) or a couple of days of jail time. You will pay $1500-2500 in fines. You will be on probation for 2-3 years during which time you cannot have any BAC level detectable while driving. You will pay $1000-10,000 in legal fees to defend yourself. These are all minimum mandatory sentences in most states.
The most eye opening case I've seen involved a 130lb woman who met her husband for dinner, had a 6 oz glass of 17% wine while waiting for a table at the restaurant, and a second with her meal. On their way home, they stopped to pick up their daughter at a dance practice. She was stopped for not coming to a complete stop at a stop sign, breathalyzed at .085. She received the full minimum mandatory penalties described above, in addition to a 30 day mandatory jail sentence for having a minor child in the car while driving under the influence. Her lawyer pleaded off the jail time to 14 days of picking up trash, but the lawyer cost $2500.
Be aware: driving with ANY BAC level, whether it makes you a dangerous driver or not, can turn into a life changing event. The statistics lie and are stacked against you. Call a cab if you've had more than a drink or two, and under no circumstances get behind the wheel of a car.