Sgt. Curt Mowers of the Minnesota State Patrol gets asked a lot of questions—about use of headlights, bike safety, turn signals, pedestrian right-of-way, and more. Mowers was recently asked a question that he felt was important to share with the public. Mowers was asked: After a night out drinking with my friends, I was arrested the following morning for drunk driving on my way to work. How is this possible?
Mowers replied: Alcohol-related crashes and DWI arrests do happen in the morning; we see it all the time. The number of those DWI arrests does not compare to what occurs on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, but surely something to be looked at and aware of, as we are going to have more crashes when we have more cars on the road and drivers are in a hurry. If we add fatigued drivers, with alcohol still in their system from the night before, crashes will increase.
Mowers shared some very basic facts about alcohol in your system. Keep in mind there are some factors that change the amount of alcohol absorbed: weight, food, gender, just to name a few, however Mowers said this can still serve as an accurate guide.
The most important thing to know is that alcohol only leaves your system with time. The “average” alcohol dissipation in humans is said to be about 0.015 percent per hour. A cup of coffee or a few hours of sleep will not dissipate alcohol faster; one drink will leave your system in approximately 90 minutes.
Now “one drink” is not a three- or fourshot martini or a long-pour cocktail. One drink for this formula is: one 12-ounce domestic beer, 4 ounces of domestic wine, or one shot or less of 80 proof alcohol in a cocktail. If you go beyond this definition of “one drink” more alcohol will be in your system and the proportional amount of time will be needed before it leaves your system.
If you drink heavily and go to sleep for only a short time before heading out in the morning, alcohol will still be in your system and you are very likely impaired, thus you are more at risk for crashing and hurting yourself and/or others. Often, in these scenarios, fatigue is a huge factor weighing in also.
Sleep with alcohol in your system is not good sleep and fewer than seven or eight hours a night is not recommended if trying to avoid fatigue. Again, there is no magic pill to take—only time will get the alcohol out of your system and it is important to consider this when making your plans and designating your sober driver. There is zero tolerance for impaired drivers on our roadways, stresses Mowers.
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