Aus drunken rider nabbed.....

[PeteSC]

From the Narooma News.........

On Tuesday April 7, a 19 year old Wattle Grove man was arrested for driving a pw 50 motorcycle on a footpath alongside the Princes Highway. The man tested positively for a mid range blood alcohol reading of 0.80. He was subsequently disqualified from driving for a period of 12 months and ordered to pay a fine of $600.

Glad he didn't try to run for it.....

[B12Teuton]

I bet he would have been fine if he staid off the sidewalk!

[Red01]

mid range blood alcohol reading of 0.80

Mid-range? That's full-blown DUI status in many US states these days.

Reminds me of a supervisor we had here at work 10 or so years ago... had his license suspended for drunk driving and then got busted for driving his lawn mower home from the tavern. Probably would have never been stopped if he'd not been pelting every house along the way with rocks because the blades were engaged.
 

[aussiebandit]

It's DUI here as well.  Our legal limit is .049.  Blow .05 and your gone.  The reason for the low range, mid range and high range is for sentencing purposes, the further over .05 the more time you get without your licence and the higher the fine, go to high or get done to often and you get some gaol time.

[Red01]

.049? Wow! That's low!
Most states have adopted .08 as the legal limit, though some may still be at the older .10. The Feds have a way of getting what they want (like lower BAC limits) by withholding funds from states who do not comply, but each state is free to set their own rules and punishments.

Many states (like mine) can still charge you with drunk driving even if you blow well under the limit. It boils down to a judgement call on the officer.
Don't get pulled over on my island with any alcohol on your breath or you'll get charged... that's how the deputies here maintain the state record for most DUI's issued - and we're MUCH less densely populated than the metro areas. Since I work swings and come home late, I've been pulled over several times on Friday & Saturday nights for the most chickenshiznit reasons, just so they could see if I'd been drinking. Once they'd ask me a few dozen questions, shine their nightstick of a flashlight back and forth across my face until I'm seeing spots and finally figure out I'm telling the truth about being sober, let me go - never even asking for license, insurance or registration.

Here, they just hit you real hard with the first DUI (stiff fines, license suspension).  Add jail the second time (as well as increasing fines & suspension time.) The third time, after your jail and suspension is over, you have to have a breathalizer installed in your car that you have to blow into to start, and blow every several minutes to keep going as well as attend rehab. May the Lord have mercy on you if there's a fatality and you're drunk, regardless of how many previous DUI's - unless you're a high ranking gov't official.

[aussiebandit]

.05 is for car/bike drivers/riders on a full unrestricted licence.

Learners and probationary drivers/riders the limit is .00.

For Heavy vehicle drivers it's .02.

The BAC laws are one of the few road laws that are just about the same in every state.  Some states, I think, vary the limit for probationary licences.

[WEINERDOGBONE]

.05 is slightly more than 1 beer in a 150lb person.    We can technically charge people with DUI in Indiana for a BAC of .05 to .07 if we can show impairment. We don't have the time to play that mickey mouse game. Hell, the real drunks just throw themselves at you. Your cops in Washington need a crime wave Paul.

[aussiebandit]

In NSW the "average" is 2 standard drinks (a standard drink in NSW is considered 10oz (middy) of  full strength (5%) beer) in the first hour and 1 each hour there after.  Ofcourse this depends on the individual person.

I saw some tests done here in the last 2 years were they got 10 people, 5 men and 5 women, of varing ages and size and fed them the above quantities for 6 hours, testing them each hour.  One of the women, a short skinny person, blew .09 in the first hour, they didn't give her another drink, half an hour later she blew .1.  Her alcahol level didn't go down below .05 again for 3 hours.

There was one guy, slightly overweight and quite tall and a regular drinker.  Drank for the full 6 hours and still blew .00 they tested him an hour after he finished and still blew .00.

The others pretty well hovered around the .03 to .05 mark.

[Red01]

Your cops in Washington need a crime wave Paul.

No, they don't.  
I'd rather have them bored and pulling me over for no real reason than have to worry about crime. Understand that my little island is pretty much residential. One grocery store, three gas stations, a couple eating establishements and four little mom & pop convenience stores, so any real crime wave would just about have to be with breaking and entering - and I sure don't want that. I like being able to not worry about my bikes and other stuff disappearing from my place. (There is a problem with teens breaking into unoccupied summer homes for party purposes - and we had a gold-digger gal kill her old man of a husband in an effort to get rich quicker.)