The basic formula for estimating a person's blood-alcohol concentration comes from The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Each drink in this calculation assumes a volume of .54 ounces of alcohol (one shot of distilled spirits, a glass of wine, or 12 ounces of beer). Many of us have wondered just how many drinks it takes before we'd be considered legally drunk.
Alcohol is a major factor in traffic accidents. In 2006, 17,602 people were killed in alcohol-related crashes, an average of one every half-hour.
- As of July 2004, every state and the District of Columbia had lowered the limit defining drunk driving from 0.10 BAC (blood alcohol content) to 0.08.
- According to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), alcohol is involved in 40 percent of all traffic deaths. Among people age 16 to 20, the percentage is 36.
- NIH analysis shows that over 70 percent of people involved in alcohol-related crashes met alcohol-dependence criteria, but most had never been treated or arrested.
- The U.S. Department of Transportation says that laws raising the drinking age to 21 prevent 1,000 traffic deaths a year.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation estimates that over 1.4 million drivers were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics in 2004 (latest data available). The arrest rate works out to one arrest for every 139 licensed drivers in the United States.
Over half of drivers arrested for drunk driving in the nation are repeat offenders, according to a 2003 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety study. Two-thirds of drivers with suspended licenses still drive. To combat the problem the foundation recommended strengthening laws that impound vehicles, remove license plates on arrest, mandate ignition interlocks, use special plates to identify repeat offenders, use checkpoints to check licenses and prevent vehicle registration by drivers without valid licenses.
If you get pulled over and your blood-alcohol level is above the legal limit, you'll be arrested for drunk driving. If that leads to a conviction, you'll probably get socked with much higher car insurance premiums — if they let you drive at all.
This calculator helps you figure out what your blood-alcohol content would be if you drank a specific number of drinks over a certain period of time. Remember, this is just an approximation. The calculator has to make certain assumptions, such as drinking all that alcohol on an empty stomach. If you eat while you drink, the alcohol is absorbed more slowly into your bloodstream. In any case, studies have shown that impairment begins with the first drink.
Alcohol affects everyone differently. If you don't normally drink, a single beer could put you out of commission. For the most part, by the time you feel drunk, you're well past the legal limit.
In general, the more you weigh, the more you'd have to drink before you'd be considered drunk.
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