Seriously ****** off - been threatened with the police by college.

[Dinomania]

Half pint Stella, half bottle Smirnoff ice - 8-9ish
Pint Stella, Smirnoff ice - just before 10
2 of those dirty cheap shots - just after 10
Pint Stella - before 11
Some girly drink, VK or WKD - just after 11 (was in a club at this point, so no more drinks)

Based on one unit being processed every hour, stella being at least 3 units/pint, alcopops being 1.5 units/bottle, rounded generously:

units	time	units still in body
2.5	9	2.5
4.5	9.45	1.75 + 4.5 = 6.25
2	10.15   5.75 + 2 = 8.25
3	10.45	7.75 + 3 = 10.75
2	11.15	10.25 + 2 = 12.25

So, 12.25 units left, should take your body 12 hrs 15 mins to metabolise that lot away.

So you got up at 9, say. There are just under ten hours between that and your last drink - so you were borderline. She has a point - she may have humiliated you terribly but sometimes that's needed to get the point across.

 

[Dave M]

LOL.

May I ask why? I felt fine that morning, t'internet suggests I was under the limit, I had 7ish hours sleep which may also speed up the process according to Telescopi.

At this rate, all the hardcore drinkers who go on long sessions, shouldn't be allowed to touch their car for the whole weekend.

Gawd it gets worse, why on earth would you listen to what I have to say and take it as a reason why you were safe to drive?

It doesn't matter if you were over under or whatever. Did you feel safe? Was the beer, coupled with tiredness, coupled with whatever skill you have behind the wheel - safe?

I've had one beer, 500ml 5% probably 2 units. Given my height and weight I'm certainly under the limit but I've not eaten anything all day and it's gone straight to my head - I wouldn't bother driving tonight if it wasn't life or death. So tell me again what the 'limit' has to do with anything?

If you feel safe fine, if not why not call a taxi - is you life worth so little to you?

 

[Scottland]

I've had one beer, 500ml 5% probably 2 units. Given my height and weight I'm certainly under the limit but I've not eaten anything all day and it's gone straight to my head - I wouldn't bother driving tonight if it wasn't life or death. So tell me again what the 'limit' has to do with anything?

I might be wrong, but all those factors would affect how much alcohol is in the blood, from which the limit is taken?

So in your case the fact that you've had no food has made the drink go to your head - your blood alcohol level would be higher than if you'd had copious amounts of food in the day?

i.e. You're (maybe) currently over the limit, but if you had a Pizza about 2 hours ago, you wouldn't (possibly) be?

 

[Shock]

Based on one unit being processed every hour, stella being at least 3 units/pint, alcopops being 1.5 units/bottle, rounded generously:

units	time	units still in body
2.5	9	2.5
4.5	9.45	1.75 + 4.5 = 6.25
2	10.15   5.75 + 2 = 8.25
3	10.45	7.75 + 3 = 10.75
2	11.15	10.25 + 2 = 12.25

So, 12.25 units left, should take your body 12 hrs 15 mins to metabolise that lot away.

So you got up at 9, say. There are just under ten hours between that and your last drink - so you were borderline. She has a point - she may have humiliated you terribly but sometimes that's needed to get the point across.

But its one hour after the first drink, not from the last one consumed.

Did you feel safe?

I felt fine that morning

:/

If I didn't feel safe I wouldn't have drove, simple as.

 

[Dinomania]

But its one hour after the first drink, not from the last one consumed.
:/

If I didn't feel safe I wouldn't have drove, simple as.

Says who?

And one symptom of alcohol is over-confidence. So you can't really trust how you felt, tbh.

 

[Beansprout]

If I didn't feel safe I wouldn't have drove, simple as.

Christ there is no "feeling safe", there is no bending the biological facts.

If you are driving it is your sole responsibility to work out how much you are drinking, work out what is safe, and work out a safe margin - and get enough sleep!

It is not responsible to:

a) not have a clue if you were under the limit
b) drive tired and borderline

It is also extremely silly to interpret the teacher's lecture aggressively. It's better to have heavy-handed people than people who don't care at all. (within reason, of course)

Quick, someone employ a teenager whil they still know everything.

Or maybe, when you or a close friend or someone kills someone or a close friend of yours, you will realise that it is not a game.

 

[Dinomania]

But its one hour after the first drink, not from the last one consumed.

Also, that rule will only work if you steadily take in only one unit per hour - which means nursing your stella for 3 hours.

Naturally you didn't do that, you piled on the units much faster than your body could deal with them - so while you actually consumed 14 units in about two-and-a-half hours (quite a feat in itself), between 9 and 11 you only metabolised away 2 units, leaving 12 units to kill in 10 hours.

It just doesn't add up, dude.

 

[Shock]

Christ there is no "feeling safe", there is no bending the biological facts.

If you are driving it is your sole responsibility to work out how much you are drinking, work out what is safe, and work out a safe margin - and get enough sleep!

It is not responsible to:

a) not have a clue if you were under the limit
b) drive tired and borderline

It is also extremely silly to interpret the teacher's lecture aggressively. It's better to have heavy-handed people than people who don't care at all. (within reason, of course)

Quick, someone employ a teenager whil they still know everything.

Or maybe, when you or a close friend or someone kills someone or a close friend of yours, you will realise that it is not a game.

Talk about going around in circles. I was answering Telescopi, not using my "feeling fine and safe" as a sole reason to why I should drive.

I interpreted the lecturer as aggressive because she was aggressive and didn’t know the facts, apart from her getting a whiff of me breath.

 

[Shock]

It just doesn't add up, dude.

It does for me.

 

[GordyR]

AFAIK the limit is 80mg per 100 millilitres of blood, and this can equate to different amounts of units depending on build etc.

Are you sure about that? I thought the limit was 40mg?

I haven't told anyone here about this before as I am deeply ashamed but I was disqualified from driving for a year for drink driving. I gave a reading of 45mg per 100ml. I drank two cans of fosters at my cousins house one evening and drove the half a mile back to my house afterwards. I recieved a 1 year ban along with a £90 fine. The guy who was in court before me had no driving license, no insurance, was more than three times over the limit and involved in a road accident... He only got a 1 year ban and a £250 fine. Go figure.

Funnily enough the police were actually quite apologetic to me since I was so borderline. They asked to see the empty cans so we went back to my cousins where they found only two opened cans which confirmed my story. They told me that if I had eaten something before driving I would likely have passed the test with flying colours.

It was kind of annoying because if I remember correctly the limit had only recently been changed from 80mg down to 40mg. But still, I make no excuses for my actions and have learned my lesson the hard way. If I am driving I refuse to touch alcohol. I won't even have a drop.

Anyway the morale of this story is don't assume you are under the limit no matter how little you believe you have drank. While in my opinion I felt 100% sober after only two cans I was still breaking the law. Something which I regret deeply.

I really hope people don't think any less of me for this.

EDIT: Ahh just researched futher. It's 35 micrograms per 100ml of breath (but you need to be over 40 to be prosecuted) and 80mg per 100ml of blood. I declined the blood test and accepted my punishment. I probably would have gotten away with it if had had opted for the blood test. But that isn't the point.

 

[Sequoia]

If I didn't feel safe I wouldn't have drove, simple as.

While it's obviously commendable to not drive if you don't feel safe, the converse isn't necessarily true. Just because you feel safe doesn't mean that you are, and if you get stopped, how you felt will have no bearing at all on whether you are over or under the limit and therefore whether you end up in court or not.

As someone who's son spent several months in hospital recovering from injuries inflicted by a drink driver, and who was lucky to actually survive at all, I have no sympathy or tolerance whatsoever for people who drive under the influence, absolutely regardless of their reason for doing so. And my son did at least live thorugh it. Plenty of other people, including some on these forums, weren't so fortunate, when the callous indifference or ignorance of drink drivers killed their loved ones.

I do wish people would get off the band wagon, drunk driving is bad, drink driving is a grey area you have all been brain washed into equating with drunk driving.

I'd rather be driving behind someone who had a skinful the night before but a good nights sleep than someone who stayed up all night but was tee total.

Why not get on the case of the truck drivers breaking the law by driving all day and all night? They cause massive pile ups on motorways killing scores of people.

Why not? Because the government and the media haven't told you to yet.

That's incredibly patronising. I have damn good reason for disliking drink drivers, and it has nothing whatever to do with government or the media, or bandwagons. People drinking and driving kills. Simple as. It's hardly rocket science.

Yes, there's plenty of other stupid and dangerous things being done on the roads, but the fact that they happen has no bearing on drink driving. If you can come up with a practical way to measure how tired people are, and whether their reactions are up to scratch or not, I'd support limits on that too. But regardless of that, I despise drink drivers for the selfish ***holes they are.

 

[Beansprout]

didn’t know the facts, apart from her getting a whiff of me breath.

You don't know the facts either.

You don't know the number of units, you therefore don't know if you were safe or not, you therefore don't know whether or not her suspicion was correct.

 

[Energize]

It takes about an hour per unit of alcohol to get it out of the bloodstream, so I doubt you were driving sober the next morning.

 

[Ex-RoNiN]

Do your work and stop driving to college half cut

Aye.

 

[pyro]

Sounds to me like she fancies a shag with you.

 

[Shock]

While it's obviously commendable to not drive if you don't feel safe, the converse isn't necessarily true. Just because you feel safe doesn't mean that you are, and if you get stopped, how you felt will have no bearing at all on whether you are over or under the limit and therefore whether you end up in court or not.

Talk about going around in circles. I was answering Telescopi, not using my "feeling fine and safe" as a sole reason to why I should drive.

Of course "feeling fine" is no way to judge if you should drive. But with not even being all that drunk in the first place, and then having a 9 hour gap, the thought of being over didn't even cross my mind. It appears I was under the limit anyway, but the keyboard warriors like to think otherwise.

You don't know the facts either.

You don't know the number of units, you therefore don't know if you were safe or not, you therefore don't know whether or not her suspicion was correct.

You seem very up yourself. Considering I know what I drank and at what time, I think I have more of an idea then my lecturer thanks.

It takes about an hour per unit of alcohol to get it out of the bloodstream, so I doubt you were driving sober the next morning.

I doubt that I was over the limit too.

Sounds to me like she fancies a shag with you.

 

[Beansprout]

You seem very up yourself.

No, just sensitive to people who don't take the issue seriously.

 

[Beansprout]

Of course "feeling fine" is no way to judge if you should drive.

If I didn't feel safe I wouldn't have drove, simple as.

Spade. Hole. Dig.

 

[PinkPig]

Spade. Hole. Dig.

Indeed. You feeling safe has nothing to do with it. I can't bring myself to care too much about your personal safety, but at least understand that your condition on the road is going to effect other people, not just you.

The exact numbers are irrelevant. You have, Shock, perhaps repeatedly, driven under the influence of alcohol, and moreover you have the audacity to get upset when someone points this out to you. All I can say is get a grip. If you think I'm "up myself" then so be it.

 

[Shock]

Spade. Hole. Dig.

As you're having some trouble understanding, I'll take you through it slowly.

The first quote was answering another member.

Did you feel safe?

If I didn't feel safe I wouldn't have drove, simple as.

Now people like you seem to think that's my method for knowing if I'm ok after a drink? You'd be wrong:

Talk about going around in circles. I was answering Telescopi, not using my "feeling fine and safe" as a sole reason to why I should drive.

So please stop mixing around what I've said to try and make yourself look good.

The exact numbers are irrelevant. You have, Shock, perhaps repeatedly, driven under the influence of alcohol,

Don't make assumptions.

and moreover you have the audacity to get upset when someone points this out to you. All I can say is get a grip.

I think you should get of your high hoarse. In the opening post I listed the drinks and asked peoples opinions. I didn't get any so worked it out for myself. What is there to get a grip of exactly?