Jacksonville Criminal Lawyer Blog
In Florida, the legal limit for a driver’s blood or breath alcohol level (BAC) is .08. In other words, a driver in Florida may be arrested for, and convicted of, the crime of DUI if he/she drives with a BAC of .08 or higher. According to a recent article on Foxnews.com, a driver in Rhode Island was arrested after crashing on the highway and submitting to the Breathalyzer test which showed results of .489 and .491. According to the DUI officers, this was the highest BAC reading the police department had seen.
A breath or blood alcohol content reading over .40 is extremely rare during DUI investigations. It is amazing (and scary) that this person was able to start and operate a car at all in that condition. To put this in perspective, I have included an alcohol consumption chart which gives estimations as to the number of drinks a person needs to consume to have a BAC of 0.08 or higher. Please note that everyone is different, and this chart is a rough estimate. Factors such as: a person’s weight, body fat percentage, the amount of food and other liquid in the system, amount of time it took to consume the drinks, gender, body chemistry, the Breathalyzer machine itself and other factors can alter the BAC score for different people who have consumed the same number of drinks.
The alcohol consumption chart also discusses how a person’s blood alcohol level is likely to affect his/her normal faculties, which is another factor in a DUI investigation. According to the chart, when a person reaches a BAC of .30, he/she is likely in a stupor, does not know what is going on and is likely to pass out. At .40 or higher, the chart says the person should be in a coma and has a good chance of dying.