Anyone have any idea what 3 times the legal limit translates into in normal life?
Anyone have any idea what 3 times the legal limit translates into in normal life?
There's obviously going to be a lot of factors involved, but I found this chart as a rough estimate:Originally Posted by CraigS
https://www.healthline.com/health/al...l-chart#charts
"Are you ready? Okay. Let's roll."- Last words of Todd Beamer
Wow, assuming the poor woman is in the 120# range, 3 drinks puts her over the limit. The chart doesn't go into time between drinks or whether they are w/ food or not, but I'd suspect she had 3 over the course of an evening w/ friends. Either way it is a shame she died.
The highest BAC level I've ever personally encountered was .28 about an hour after an accident. The guy was obviously in no shape to do field sobriety tests as he was transported - gentle curve with a tree located on the outside just past the mid-point, apparently drifted right into it. They did a blood draw for us in the ER (not always a given in today's world)
Here's a list of effects, I would note that without keeping up on their Standardized Field Sobriety Testing protocols, most officers will have a difficult time recognizing impairment at below .12. Several studies by NHTSA reflect that officers more often than not didn't recognize drivers in 'lower' ranges were impaired w/o the benefit of Standardized Field Tests.
And since you just can't stop folks and PBT them or administer SFST's recognizing subtle and sometimes not so subtle clues is important.
Anyways, here's a list of effects:
Understanding BAC Levels & Effects
Common symptoms, levels of impairment, and risks for various blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels include:
0.02%: This is the lowest level of intoxication with some measurable impact on the brain and body. You will feel relaxed, experience altered mood, feel a little warmer, and may make poor judgments.
0.05%: At this level of BAC, your behavior will may become exaggerated. You may speak louder and gesture more. You may also begin to lose control of small muscles, like the ability to focus your eyes, so vision will become blurry.
0.08%: This is the current legal limit in the U.S., other than Utah, and at this level it is considered illegal and unsafe to drive. You will lose more coordination, so your balance, speech, reaction times, and even hearing will get worse.
0.10%: At this BAC, reaction time and control will be reduced, speech will be slurred, thinking and reasoning are slower, and the ability to coordinate your arms and legs is poor.
0.15%: This BAC is very high. You will have much less control over your balance and voluntary muscles, so walking and talking are difficult. You may fall and hurt yourself.
0.20-0.29%: Confusion, feeling dazed, and disorientation are common. Sensations of pain will change, so if you fall and seriously hurt yourself, you may not notice, and you are less likely to do anything about it. Nausea and vomiting are likely to occur, and the gag reflex will be impaired, which could cause choking or aspirating on vomit. Blackouts begin at this BAC, so you may participate in events that you don’t remember.
0.30-0.39%: At this point, you may be unconscious and your potential for death increases. Along with a loss of understanding, at this BAC you’ll also experience severe increases in your heart rate, irregular breathing and may have a loss of bladder control.
0.40% and over: This level of BAC may put you in a coma or cause sudden death because your heart or breathing will suddenly stop. This is what is known as a lethal blood alcohol level.
Driving is a divided attention task that requires us to do several things at once. Our ability to do these things in concert begins to deteriorate at very low alcohol concentrations.
That being said, often folks who drink regularly/constantly may appear to have adapted to their BAC's.
Here's an article which examines 'tolerence:'
B's Story
The arrest for driving under the influence (DUI) came as a surprise to B. Still, he took it pretty well. On one hand, he had known that he was breaking the law; on the other, he had concluded long ago that the law did not apply to him. B, age 47 years, is divorced, employed, and, unless sick, drinks a fifth of rum most days. Drinking is important to B. It calms his nerves and lifts his mood. Besides, he is often bored. Drinking, combined with his favorite hobby, biking—he owns a Harley—keeps him amused on his days off. During his weekend forays, B stops at bars or parks along the way to drink beer. B says his risky behavior has lessened since his younger days. Now he doesn't drink “hard stuff” on days he rides his motorcycle.
Blood Alcohol Content
Apparently, B assumes beer is more benign than rum. In my experience, this is a common misconception among convicted drunk drivers. A number of offenders have told me flat out that they can't be alcoholics because they only drink beer. Beer does contain less alcohol per ounce than hard liquor, and perhaps people mistakenly equate liquor's quick high with addiction predilection. Beer is by far the preferred drink among convicted DUI offenders, but a standard drink of a 12-oz can of beer, a 1 ½ oz “shot” of 80-proof distilled spirits, or a 5-oz glass of wine all contain the same amount of pure alcohol, 13.7 gr (0.6 oz). The total amount of alcohol consumed, plus other moderating factors, not the type of alcoholic drink, determines the blood alcohol concentration (BAC).
Several factors moderate the absorption, distribution, and metabolism of beverage alcohol. The presence of food in the stomach slows absorption. Drinking slowly and drinking more diluted alcohol allows the body to metabolize it while at the same time absorbing an incoming dose. Most people eliminate about one drink each hour from their system.... Alcohol is distributed in tissues according to water content. A person's weight and sex determine the total volume of body water and, therefore, the BAC after drinking a certain amount of alcohol. In general, the more a person weighs, the larger the volume of body water and the lower the BAC. Alcohol pharmaco-kinetics differ by gender. Women have lower glutathione-dependent formaldehyde dehydrogenase activity, leading to increased alcohol absorption. They also generally have a higher fat content and less total body water, where ethanol is distributed. This contributes to higher BACs, an enhanced rate of alcohol oxidation in the liver, a slower rate of gastric emptying of alcohol, and higher vulnerability to the toxic effects of alcohol.
But another phenomenon, “tolerance,” affects not only the BAC, but also the body's capacity to cope with high levels of this toxic chemical.
Tolerance
It is well known that regular drinkers, like B, develop tolerance, broadly defined as the ability to resist the action of a drug.6 Most people, including B, are familiar with the term, “tolerance.” “I have real high tolerance,” he bragged during his interview. “I can drive fine after a few drinks; actually pretty good even after drinking a lot.”
In effect, drink for drink, B feels less drunk and may have less alcohol-induced impairment in speech, gait, and fine and gross coordination than his light-drinking counterparts. The biologic mechanisms of tolerance are complex.....Most experienced drinkers develop some form of acquired or chronic tolerance. Chronic tolerance is a bodily adaptation that makes a person need to drink more and more alcohol to get the same effect, or inversely, an adaptation that causes less and less response to a recurring dose.
The degree of tolerance, however, varies both within and among individuals. How and why different people develop different manifestations of tolerance are perplexing.6 Metabolic tolerance refers to changes in the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of alcohol.9 These changes lead to a more rapid clearance of alcohol from the body. Tolerance also occurs at a cellular level in the brain itself (called functional tolerance), which reduces signs of intoxication, even at high BACs
Because of tolerance, habitual users may show minimal effects of a dose that would cause an intense reaction in a naïve drinker. Whereas social drinkers may show clear signs of intoxication at a BAC of 0.10%, such as nausea, slurred speech, and lack of coordination, heavy drinkers at that BAC may not show these signs.10 Added to this, some drinkers are simply less sensitive, by nature, to alcohol's effects.11 This is characteristic of people with alcohol dependence.
Still, tolerance has its own limitations, for as the drinking career progresses, over days, years and decades, so does liver damage from alcohol's toxic effects. Factors that may affect the development of liver injury include the dose, duration, and type of alcohol consumed, drinking patterns, gender, ethnicity, and other risk factors, such as obesity, iron overload, infection, and genetic factors.12 The drinker typically is unaware of this process, but when liver function declines below a certain threshold, tolerance declines. If the drinking continues, the drinker begins to realize that they can no longer continue to “hold their liquor.”
There is a correlation between BAC and the drug's behavioral and emotional effects, but there is also considerable variability. For example, tolerance enables some very heavy drinkers to survive BAC levels considered lethal (in the range of 0.40% to 0.50%).10,13 Memorable patients with BACs this high have been reported as conscious and able to carry on conversations.10 One report from Sweden describes a woman arrested for drunken driving with a BAC of 0.55%.14......
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2912088/
Adding nothing to the conversation since 2015....
We responded for medical on two homeless guys who fought in the breezeway of a small strip mall. Our patient had a generic head laceration, and the other guy had left. Patient reeked of alcohol and was refusing treatment.
My FF starts to ask the orientation questions and the guy spits out all the answers without the questions being finished. He then says "you need to see me walk, right?" so he gets up and walks steadily to the far end and back. Then proceeds to tell us without prompting how many quarters in a dollar, who the president is, and the name of the street out front. So this guy is clearly A and O and able to care for himself, and has done this before. A lot.
PD asks him to blow into the PBT. PBT shows .56. Figuring the PBT is wonky, they use another and get .56.
By all the rules, he should be dead or incapacitated. But he was so adapted to alcohol that he was still functional at a level that would have killed any of my crew.
OTOH all of these tests follow predictable patterns so it's not like I would expect him to make good decisions or drive safely or whatever.
We rented a car for a one way four hour drive yesterday, and the only vehicle they had was a Chrysler Pacifica hybrid minivan. Apparently had 32 mile plug in EV range. We drove it six miles home Monday night and didn't charge it.
Made weird noise driving, acceleration was good, and at mostly 80 on the highway, it said we were getting 30 mph. My wife started reading the manual and found this on the battery system.
Likes pretty much everything in every caliber.
My wife won't let me buy an EV.
Somehow I am OK with that.
With liberty and justice for all...must be 18, void where prohibited, some restrictions may apply, not available in all states.
This is my "Performance Hybrid" Corvette ERay. There's nothing to plug in. It charges the battery through normal driving.
(4-minute video)
Semper Fi, Marines!
AWDCorvette.com - Corvettes and especially the new 2024 all-wheel drive ERay!
youtube.com/@AWDCorvetteERay
The same physics apply to your Taycan EV battery. Although I bet the Porsche, like Tesla, are smarter than the Pacifica and you don't need to physically have the key in RUN position to condition the battery.
Its why these cars should be left plugged in when parked, if able, especially in very cold climates. If they are not plugged in, at least with Tesla, you will just use more battery as you start your trip. Your car has a heat pump I believe (2021+ Tesla as well) so your winter performance should take less of a hit compared to my older gen Tesla.
I use https://abetterrouteplanner.com/ for road trips as a sanity check in the winter. 14 months of ownership and I have only needed to charge outside the house on 2 trips. Have a 200 mile round trip Sunday, with the mild weather I am home with ~28% if I charge up to 100%. In the winter (32F), the same trip says I get home at 15%.
EDIT: When you select a DC fast charger in your Taycan, can you hear any more noise? I can only remember doing this once and I think my front motor was being used to generate heat for the battery and made a grinding type sound.
Last edited by rayrevolver; 04-11-2024 at 07:32 AM.
Back in about 2022 a new manufacturer launched a line of EV snowmobiles. I will reiterate that I do not want to be a hater, but that just seemed goofy to me. Maybe using them around resorts or something might be feasible, but snowmobiles are probably the least efficient vehicle possible, and they are only used when it is cold. Maybe boats are possibly less efficient, and this company made PWC also.
But snowmobiles are typically used recreationally, and frequently do lots of miles in a single day. I could see having a car that you just drove around town, but when you go snowmobiling for the weekend there are lots of miles involved. And typically operating from hotels in more remote areas, where chargers would be uncommon.
Anyway, the warm winter didn't help them any.
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