BAC and driving

Right on, all you need to do is get to I-35 and O'Connor Rd in San Antonio!

 

Rain check....thats a mere 1738.8 miles from my current location...

 

OP, I don't know why you are even asking the question unless you stare at the clock. Darn, this is the last one.

Read the FMSCA rules and regulations if you are going to be in this business. Save all that beer money and put your kid through college. It's a free country alright. But if you feel a need to drink every night like you posted, you are not as free as you think. How does one know his BAC anyways?

 

"How does one know his BAC anyways?"

We all do math, especially in trucking, but I was part of two surveys that involved people ingesting beer, wine and hard liquor, then blowing into the machine at various points. NO ONE guessed near their true BACs... at any one point.

I was amazed that even using simple procedures, knowing body weight, alcohol content of the drink(s), and time involved, that I couldn't get within .03-04 on the several people by just doing the math.

 

Dang Im only 290 miles out and I know where that is,I think Ive got 5 left on my 14.

 

Puts ya in here around 10 pm! And only 58 mph average, and a small truck stop right down the road (1/4 mile). That's where I parked when I was driving.

 

If you know all the numbers you can. But isn't 2 beers more like a 12-pack!

 

VERY LARGE beers... "I only had two beers, officer.."

They were 40s.

 

I do believe that I'm the target for being a tad bit "harsh" on the OP. Those of you who know me know I do not pull punches with silly questions such as this one.

Since my first experience with drunk drivers and the death of a pair of twins that I dated in school I've been down on anyone who drank and was stupid enough to get behind the wheel or on the back of a bike.

The OP was given what he asked for. Several FMCSA rules with most of the information he needed to make an informed decision.

I NEVER came down on drinking and even stated I used to enjoy a good beer or wine and yes even a JD and coke BUT NEVER within the off duty times given in the FMCSA and actually with more added as that piece of plastic in my pocket was how I made my living! A DUI will pretty much kill that source of income for every CDL holder in the country as if anyone who has gone to any company websites and looked, a DUI not older than 10 years ON AVERAGE will pretty much keep you flipping burgers somewhere if not sweeping the docks but you darned sure won't be driving their equipment much less getting your application past file 13 when they get to the line asking about that DUI you had.

I will put it bluntly if the OP or ANYONE were so stupid as to open a drink and enjoy it then think that a GIVEN time limit makes him not a target of a lawyer they definitely deserve the beating that lawyer is going to give them!

How much plainer can I make it. YES .001% is legal by every state out there and even in the FMCSA. A lawyer thinks differently! And so do juries!

How much is your time worth if you have an accident with that piddling amount of alcohol at .01% worth to you to sit in a freaking court room fighting a law suit by a "target of a drunk killer truck driver" which is how the news papers will have the head line and how that ambulance chaser will state it in his opening argument!

Then there is the small problem of you are not going to be working, as well the truck you were in was probably damaged and is being repaired, your boss has trash canned your arse because you brought him into your fantasy world as he's also in this law suit and is probably wondering if Swift, CRE or any BFI will hire him when this nightmare of your making is over so he can pay off all the other law suits and collection agencies that will be breathing down his neck!

No, really, enjoy a beer or three or get plastered all you want. I used to do the same when I was young and dumb BUT was smart enough to not drive or ride and could afford a taxi!

Just use some common sence and forget that stupid idea that in 10 hours you can be legal enough to drive no matter what those stupid math problems say!

You just haven't figured out that this nation has become the land of "how to get rich by suing the crapola out of anyone who looks at you cross eyed" not to mention when they see that it has a big truck attached to it they add a few more zeros to that figure in their mind!

Also, Ronin is right. You can't guesstimate what your BAC is! My brother-in-law a city cop came home one evening and a few of us were talking and it got to his BAC toy he used and he told us that there was a funny way to test it which was to get a bottle of alcohol (the rubbing kind) or a bottle of the drinking kind so we got a bottle of JD and a bottle of regular alcohol that we all have in the truck and we did a "huff" test.

The JD, when you breathe in one deep breath on a man that weighted 200 pounds blew a .03%! Me at 135 blew a .06% then the regular old rubbing alcohol a guy that weighed about 190 blew a .05 and the guy weighing in at 220 blew the same! The percentages took over an hour to drop to zero! That was just by breathing in the fumes! Granted that was a few years ago but still it's like looking at a tire and saying there's 95 pounds instead of 100 pounds of air pressure.
You're guessing as to your livelihood in a gamble that if the bovine excrement hits the fan you'll come out smelling like a rose!

Again, I used to enjoy a beer (foreign, not that crapola with a born on date) but my common sence made me not drink knowing that "later" that day I was going to drive something! Even on my dedicated run into NYC if I didn't have a delivery untill after 0700 the next day I would NOT have a beer after 1800 and that only with my dinner. I could go without as my license was more important than a lousy beer no matter where it came from or how good it was!

But, if you do have that beer and do go driving later that day and screw the pooch let me know so I can come to court and cheer the ambulance chaser on to victory as apparently you like to gamble just for a stupid cheap high! The verdict will probably get a cheer or raspberry from me depending on how much they get!

But all of you before you pop the top on that brew look at the clock and give your self plenty of time. If home on a weekend and the phone rings you have three choices to make.
1- Don't answer. Thats what caller ID is for!
2- Say I've been drinking and it'll be at LEAST ______ hours before I'll even THINK about driving. This is also how you get out of driving when you'd rather be at home, a ruse I've used many times!
3- Be stupid and get in the truck!

That beer really isn't worth it is it? It'll still be there when you get home with time to spare to enjoy it unless someone drinks it for you!

 

Pretty much nailed it.