<p>The same way they do in any criminal case, although if its a first time offense, the breathalyzer result is very close to the threshold and the level of impairment is in dispute, I would hope it wouldn’t get this far. A lot of these drivers are not caught because of erratic driving but from the increasing use of DUI checkpoints.</p>
<p>We don’t have checkpoints in our area, although most accidents that make the papers have at least one driver under the influence.
I imagine substances must be an even bigger problem in areas that feel its necessary to install & staff checkpoints.
Although I wonder how effective they are, just as information is shared in the media about speed traps, so are locations of DUI checkpoints identified on Twitter et. al.</p>
<p>Over 77% of DUI arrests in 2009 resulted in convictions, in CA.
Which seems like a good % to me & that evidence holds up in court.
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<p>A lot of jurisdictions do it because of federal grants. The police depts can receive a lot of money for overtime pay if they do these checkpoints.</p>
<p>I agree with this from post 226: “ucb, I think there is a difference between the occasional and hardcore/binge drinker.”, but only in a small way.
Personally, morally, health-wise, I pretty much agree. But this thread focuses on drinking and driving- not just drinking.</p>
<p>The “occasional drinker” is just as dangerous as the “hardcore drinker” when he is drunk on the road. Even if he drinks and drives [beyond .08] only once a year, then that one time he is equally dangerous. Certainly, the “hard core drinker” may be on the road drunk more often, and in that sense he is dangerous more often, because of frequency. </p>
<p>Pooch has asked repeatedly if any of us have ever had drinks and then drove. It is of course a red herring; the defense to drunk driving that “Johnny did it too!” just doesn’t cut it. In fact, that defense hasn’t worked for me for anything since about 3rd grade. And whether or not any of us have ever driven after drinking is independent of what we may think is proper punishment for those found guilty of DUI.</p>
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<p>If you are so worried about getting caught for DUI (on the road or at a check point), don’t DUI. Don’t drive to where you are drinking alcohol, or get a breathalyzer for your own use to make sure that you have sobered up to BAC = 0.00% before driving.</p>
<p>I’ve had to drive through a few checkpoints. The last one was a bit scary, all these cops lined up along an exit ramp, on both sides, shining their flashlights at the cars. No speaking at all. I wanted to roll down the window and ask what was going on but decided it wasn’t a good idea. </p>
<p>I hadn’t been drinking, but H had been. I thought we would be pulled aside since those fancy flashlights can tell by the breath you exhale if you’ve been drinking or not and they would have seen that. I cracked all the windows, just in case.</p>
<p>UCB, if a BAC of 0.00% is the baseline for whether you should drive, then we have a society of lawbreakers. </p>
<p>I guess I have to say this a hundred times since it keeps getting misinterpreted: If you are drunk and driving a car, then you should be punished accordingly. If you are not drunk and driving a car and you have no prior DUI’s, the punishment should not land in you in jail nor follow you around for the rest of your life.</p>
<p>Actually substances including alcohol can affect your judgment & reaction time before you would appear " drunk".</p>
<p>You can legally drive if your BAC is below 0.08, in most jurisdictions, which unless there is something wrong with your liver or you are drinking on an empty stomach, would be about one drink per hour.( more if you are a large man)
[How</a> Alcohol Effects Us: The Biphasic Curve](<a href=“http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/HealthIssues/1100827422.html#.Uojq-H-9KSM]How”>http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/HealthIssues/1100827422.html#.Uojq-H-9KSM)
[BAC</a> Measurement - Breathalyzer - Alcohol Effects - BAC Level - Lifeloc](<a href=“http://www.lifeloc.com/measurement.aspx]BAC”>http://www.lifeloc.com/measurement.aspx)</p>
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<p>BAC = 0.00% before driving is a good policy for your personal safety, even though it is lower than the legal threshold for DUI.</p>
<p>Even if you are willing to risk driving on non-zero BAC, if you have your own breathalyzer, you will be able to know better where your BAC is rather than just guessing while your mind is clouded with alcohol.</p>
<p>One can get a DUI conviction without even really driving behind the wheel of a car. In our county a few years ago, a drunk pulled his car off to side of road and parked his car under a tree and took a nap trying to ‘sleep it off’. The drunk’s car was parked in neutral with brakes off while he was sleeping and the car rolled down incline from parked under tree and rolled down into and hitting a moving car in traffic on road. The sleeping drunk picked the wrong car to roll into…of all the people in the world…it was the county head sheriff’s car. The surprised sheriff wrote the guy up for DUI. Don’t sleep drunk in a car.</p>
<p>Should we feel sad about the drunk who pulled over to nap, didn’t set his brakes correctly and crashed into a sheriff’s car? I don’t. The guy was driving drunk. He drove, drunk, to the place where he stopped. And then, perhaps because he was drunk, he didn’t set the brakes. </p>
<p>Don’t drive drunk, and you can’t have that guy’s problem.</p>
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<p>No, people who disagree with you aren’t misinterpreting your words at all. It’s that we have a different opinion on what “punished accordingly” should mean.</p>