Finally, we have reached our last set of results for our wetlab experiment. If you have been following our blog, you can skip right to the results because you know the set up of our experiment. If you have not been following along over the last few weeks, here is the rundown. We, Dahl, Fischer & Wilks, Xcite Media and VonFeldt & Beatty Investigations, invited some people to join us for a happy hour. During the happy hour, the participants tracked their alcohol and food consumption and took PBT’s and roadside tests at various times. The volunteers understood that by participating they were agreeing not to drive home after the happy hour regardless of the results.
So many people go to happy hour after work, thinking it is a harmless way to end the work day. We didn’t want to disappoint anyone, but as DUI defense attorneys we regularly see people who thought they were fine to drive after just a couple of drinks at a happy hour, or dinner with friends, or a holiday party who learned the hard way that they were not safe to drive. We thought it might be educational for people to see how little alcohol it can take to have a BAC over the legal limit, hoping that people might be a little more cautious when deciding to drive home after having a few drinks.
We had seven volunteers help us out. In our previous posts we have shared the results of our six other participants. Here are the results for Participant 7. Participant 7 is a 36 year old male. He is 6’2″ tall and weighs 195 lbs. He drinks approximately three times a week and drinks approximately 1-2 drinks per sitting. Earlier in the day, he had a burrito for lunch. Like our other participants, he took the roadside tests before he started drinking. He passed the roadside tests, showing only one clue on the one leg stand test.
This participant had two Bombay Sapphires in the first 30 minutes and had a PBT result of .081. In the next half an hour, he had another Bombay Sapphire and his BAC actually dropped to .076. He performed pretty well on the second set of roadsides, except for the horizontal gaze nystagmus. He showed 3 out of 6 clues on this test, but only 1 out of 8 on the walk and turn and 1 out of 4 on the one leg stand. At 90 minutes, he had drank a quarter of a gin and tonic and shot of fireball. His PBT result was .171.
In our next post, we will talk about some of the questions our volunteers asked during the wetlab and try to debunk some of the DUI law myths.