Most people do not set out to knowingly drive over the speed limit. While there are certainly some who know they are over the limit and proceed to drive anyway, most drivers try to avoid the risk of a DWI.
You will often see people at events and bars trying to gauge how sober they are. They came out knowing they needed to drive home, but also wanted to have something to drink. So, they are left trying to work out when exactly they are safe to leave.
People are poor judges of their BAC
The key thing that matters in most DWI cases is a person’s blood alcohol level. If they are over the limit, when tested by the police, then the officers will arrest them. Officers can, of course, arrest someone even when they have not reached the legal BAC limit, if they have solid grounds to believe the person’s driving was impaired by the alcohol they had consumed. For instance, if they observed them slewing across the road, or if the driver failed the field sobriety tests, such as the walk and turn.
What exactly your BAC sits at in any given moment is incredibly hard to know without carrying out a chemical test. Drink sizes and strengths can vary considerably, so two glasses of one particular beer could result in a much higher BAC than two similar-sized glasses of another, just as a shot poured by one person could result in higher BAC levels than a shot poured by someone else.
Your body will also process alcohol differently from someone else’s, and some days your body will process it more slowly than on other days. Researchers who tested people’s ability to determine when they reached the legal BAC limit found that between 39% and 53% of people called it too late.
If you did try to gauge your drinking and the police say you got it wrong, it’s important to remember that they, too, can make mistakes. A thorough assessment of your situation by a legal professional experienced in DWI defense is always worth considering in situations like yours.
