When are citizens going to wake up and realize that when you are told that anything you say/do can and will be used against you it really will.This includes feild sobreity testing.All you do is give the State the evidence to convict yourself.Now if you want
to help the State convict you go ahead and co-operate.Should you refuse the test you will loose your driving privelage for the refusal however that is the least of the two outcomes of which you can only blame yourself .

 

If you can pass the field sobriety test, they should let you go. I'd rather see the LEOs chase down wayward cellphone users who are nearly as bad as most drunks.

 

Well....what can I say. the law says .08 is over the limit. What do you want the LEO to do....let you off? IMHO you should go to jail, have your vehicle impounded and maybe even have your drivers' licence revoked for a minimum of 1 year for the 1st offence. Second time crush the vehicle and revoke the licence permanently. And add some jail time. Screw the 3 strikes thing. JMHO. Some places are talking about lowering the .08 to .05. Good...I hope they do. OK...flame away and spout all your statistics, but I place drinkin' & drivin' in the same class as cell phone/texting, or any other stupid distracting activity while driving. If you are driving, then drive........... Period.

 

of course....

 

Phil for what it's worth I agree totally with you that 0.08 is not impaired.

A few years back I participated in a study about impairment. Some of us drove an obstacle course and some of us flew an airplane (with a CFI on board). This is when the legal limit was 0.10. I got up to 0.12, was still able to fly, converse with the tower and land. The FAA limit is 0.04. Oxygen levels at altitude were checked also as this was supposed to factor in hugely to impairment.

As for driving the obstacle course, it was a piece of cake although reflex time had slowed a little.

The problem are the drinkers who do not know when to quit. They will receive a DUI and continue to drive without insurance or a license with multiple convictions on their records. How many times have you read of a DUI accident where it was their 4th or 5th conviction? It is more frequent than one might imagine.

I am not condoning drinking and driving by any means but there has to be a standard and that standard is 0.08 unfortunately. And a 2nd violation should receive jail time.

 

Well ummmm....actually the law in most states is that you can be convicted if you are driving under the INFLUENCE. So....while the legal limit might be .08 and you blow a .06, if it can be proven you are still influenced by alcohol...you can still be found guilty.

I was an LEO many moons ago, and where I was (Washington State) the limit at the time was .10...I imagine it probably has been lowered. Prior to being an LEO I didn't think much about DUI as I do now. After having seen Lord only knows how many accidents where alcohol was in play...the injuries, the loss of life...well I have little compassion for those who choose to drink and drive. There are countless amounts of research done on the effects of alcohol and to go through it all would be pointless....the fact is that your speed of reaction is effected...even if you don't feel "drunk".

By the way...and again...I am sure perhaps there have been some changes, but refusal to take a breath test in Washington resulted in a hearing where you could lose your license for year...and you still could be convicted of DUI if the officer did a creditable job on field sobriety tests and observations of your driving.

Drinking and driving is a choice...one I simply don't do. God knows I am not the paragon of virtue by any means...but if you choose to drink and drive...and you get caught...then I am not one to have much in the way of compassion. Whether or not people with a blood alcohol content around .08 cause fewer accidents than those with higher content really isn't the point. The fact is the law is, in your case, .08 being the legal limit, and you were there. So knowing the facts? The fact is that in your state the legal limit whereby a person is deemed to be intoxicated is a blood alcohol content of .08 or greater. You were in excess of that...therefore you broke the law as it is currently written.

Sorry you got caught...but complaining here isn't going to solve the problem.

 

Sucks to hear dude. The legal limit is def gay. But can't change that.

Cool story about me though.

This last St patty's day I was bar hopping, bout 12:30 a friend from work picked me up and we went to our friends bar a couple towns away. On the way home we got pulled over. She had a couple beers. The cop kept asking if she drank that night, she kept denying it. Finally I leaned over and said alright bud, this is what's up. I went to Jakes and had a couple beers, then went to colony and had a couple car bombs and a couple beers, went to brothers for a couple drinks then she picked me up went to our friends bar and now she's driving me home. He said alright thank you, that's what I was looking for. So he tested her. Count backwards from 69 and stop at 57. She messed up once, then he said say the alphabet backwards from s to e and don't sing it. Alright now I wouldn't have even tried that cause I can't say the alphabet stone sober forward without singing it.
So he pulls me out of the car and does the flashlight test back and forth, I moved my head once out of the like 6 or 7 times. Then he told me to count and said I was a little buzzed but I would be good to drive. He let me drive her car back.

I guess the moral of my story is tell be cool and don't get nervous and tell the cop what he wants to hear. lol

 

Here's a thought... the breathalyzer didn't get you, drinking and driving did.

 

You have got to be kidding. The morons are out in force today. Dont drink and drive. It is not a difficult concept.

 

I'm sorry I posted. I've driven drunk, but this wasn't one of those times. I've also spoken to some cops since this happened and they all agree that the .08 BAC is too low and is unreasonable.

Also, while I went through the process they sent me for evaluation to see if I needed rehab or treatment (I didn't) and the women told me that everything they're doing, the fines, skyrocketing insurance rates, probation, mandating people to rehabs and jail time aren't doing anything to stop the same people from driving drunk.

I've been riding since I was a little kid, had my first Harley when I was 20. I'm probably older than most of you guys and I'm not a boutique HD guy, I don't even own a HD T shirt so I'm as against deaths on the road as much as the next guy but busting people for having a drink isn't right and the punishment is way out of proportion. We've drawn the line but we've drawn it too low.

Now, if my BAC was 1.8 I could understand the harsh tones. Go on the net and look up the studies, you'll be apalled. One day you'll have two beers and you'll be riding home thinking you're stone sober and you'll get pulled over and you'll get busted and you'll find yourself in hell, just over two beers. It's BS. PB