Bill,

On Thu, 23 Sep 2004 20:40:18 -0700, William "Chops" Westfield wrote:

>...<
> Someone wouldn't drive till a half-hour after their single beer.  Isn't
> that right about the time the blood alcohol level from the beer peaks?
> How long DO you have to wait?  Can you have a glass of wine before 
> dinner,
> and drive after dinner?  A beer at lunch, and drive home after work?

In aviation, the rule-of-thumb is "minimum 8 hours bottle-to-throttle", and that's for a small amount of 
drink, say a pint of beer.  I have to admit that most people wouldn't use this time-limit when driving, but if 
you find yourself unable to drive for any reason you can just stop the car and walk home, or sit there, or 
whatever.  If you are flying you have to find somewhere to land and then do so safely, which could be a really 
serious problem!

To extend the problem you mention: what about driving the next day after drinking the night before?  A lot of 
people tend to think you "sleep it off" but it's entirely possible to wake up with more alcohol in your blood 
than the legal limit if you've been drinking heavily.

In the UK the limit (80mg/litre, if I remember rightly) is what is used by the police - none of the "sobriety 
tests" that we've seen on American "Police video" television.  If the police officer suspects you've been 
drinking he can require you to take a breath test.  If you fail that, or if you refuse to take the test, you 
are arrested and further tests are made at the police station (another breath test, then either blood or urine 
sample).

Now while this is straightforward to administer, it does have the problems that others have mentioned, in that 
nobody knows how much they can drink and remain under the limit, and it makes no allowance for variability 
between persons.  

I think a much fairer test would be of reaction time.  This is the ability (or one of them) that drinking 
impairs, and this is what we want drivers to have at a reasonable level.  If driving with a reaction time 
longer than a certain value was made an offence, people could test themselves and find out how much they can 
drink before being impaired, and this does take personal differences into account, and solves the "morning 
after" and other problems.  And it would stop some people driving when they are stone cold sober, but 
shouldn't be driving anyway!  :-)

Further, it could be built into the car, so that when you go to start the engine you have to pass a reaction 
time test first, or it won't let you!

Cheers,


Howard Winter
St.Albans, England


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