Over the years, I’ve represented plenty of people who have been in trouble for drink driving. Here are a few common traps that I find they fall into.
The first is counting drinks. It used to be believed that you could have 1 or 2 drinks in the first hour and then one drink every hour after that and fall below the .05 limit. It’s since been well and truly established that that doesn’t work so please don’t count your drinks and think that you’ll be fine.
The second is morning after offences. If you’ve had a big night, before you get in the car the next morning either to drive home or to take the kids to soccer, have a think about whether you might still have alcohol in your system. Often, it feels more like being hungover as opposed to still being drunk. If you’ve got that feeling, for goodness’ sake, don’t get behind the wheel.
The third is a newer sort of technology – personal breathalysers – that you can have in your car or at home and blow into and they’ll give you a reading. Generally, these work pretty well, but what they don’t factor in is the way that your reading changes over time. If you have a drink and blow into your breathalyser, you may find that you’re under the limit. Therefore, you get behind the wheel of your car and then find that five or ten minutes into your trip your reading might be higher.
So while these devices are handy for understanding your limits and where your blood alcohol level might be at different stages of an evening, they’re not something that you can rely on to make sure that you’re safe to drive. So if you’ve had a drink, it’s important not to drive.
I know it doesn’t sound like much fun, but the only way to be sure of avoiding a drink driving charge is to put the keys away if you’re having a beverage. If you are in trouble, we’re always here to help.
