People are often unsure exactly how intoxicated they actually are. This can sometimes lead to impaired driving charges. Someone thinks that they should still be well under the legal limit, even though they know they’ve consumed some alcohol, and they’re shocked to find out that they’re actually over the limit when they fail a breath test.
But why does this happen? Why do people make these critical mistakes? Below are two potential reasons.
They compare themselves to others
First and foremost, some studies have asked people to judge their own intoxication and then given them a breath test to see how accurate they were. These people are almost always wrong, and one reason is that they compare themselves to the people around them. If someone is in a group of calm and sober individuals, they may feel highly intoxicated. But with the exact same BAC, if they’re in a rowdy club surrounded by highly intoxicated individuals, that same person will think they are relatively sober.
BAC doesn’t decline as fast as they think
Another issue is when people try to wait for their BAC to go down before they drive. Someone may stop drinking with friends at a bar and spend an hour drinking water before getting in the car. Their BAC will go down, but it only declines at a rate of about 0.015% per hour. It could take someone hours to actually get back under the legal limit, so spending an hour drinking water just doesn’t help.
These types of mistakes sometimes do lead to drunk driving charges, and those who have been arrested need to know about all their defense options by speaking with an experienced Austin DWI attorney before making any decisions about their case.