Reply to: Anybody use a breathalyser?

[BolshieBastard]

No, you're just an unpleasant arrogant ass who posts crap and thinks it's insightful.

Clearly you're delusional. Go and lie down. That's if you can find your arse with both hands.

[JRCT]

I was stopped by the police a few years ago at 8.30ish on a Wednesday morning. I was in a hire car and it didn't showup on their random computer check, apparantly.

I'd been out the night before with a few pals and I was more than a bit worried when he said it was standard practice, once I had been stopped, to breathalyse. He was fiddling around with the pipe bit trying to clip it on to the machine. I was in the back of his car, cold, alcohol fuelled sweat dripping down my face. After a couple of minutes of failing to clip the tube on, he just threw into his door pocket and swore a bit. He then told me to take my documents into the nearest polie station within two weeks.

Relief was not the word.

[xoggoth]

Went to see an old Uni friend recently and the vodka always flows freely. Checked in the morning with a DIY breathalyser from Halfords and it said I had not been drinking at all. Bit dubious I reckon.

[EternalOptimist]

These Scottish ones are extremely accurate.

If you can get a tune out of it - don't drive

[NickFitz]

jeeeezzz 18 hours

so let get this straight

sit down for dinner with bottle of wine at 8

eat dinner and consume wine finishing last dregs at 11.30

go to bed

up at 8 -driving at 8.30 and I am now over the limit??

what a fookin farce

Not necessarily. Remember, your body is metabolising alcohol even as you drink - it doesn't suddenly start the moment you finish drinking. So if you drink a bottle of wine between 23:00 and 23:30 at night, then you may well be over the limit at 8 in the morning, but if you drank it from 20:00 - 23:30 it would be much less likely.

Also, people metabolise it at different rates depending on a huge variety of factors, both environmental and genetic. So two people might match each other drink-for-drink and the next morning one could be over the limit while the other barely showed a trace.

[Paddy]

Paint a long white line on your drive. If you can walk down it without falling over, you're good to go

Seriously, that's a good question, and an AlcoSense may be what you are after. Specifically, the AlcoSense Elite seems the obvious choice for a minted contractor.

In France, breathalyzer kits are now compulsory in cars, and for a froggie gendarme it's a special treat to stop an unwitting UK tourist and cop them with a swingeing fine for not having one (along with all the other clobber drivers must have there, such as triangles and first aid kits, correctly dipped headlights, etc etc).

(I think consumer breathalyzeres were banned in the UK until not long ago, on the grounds that they would be inaccurate if incorrectly used or cheap models sold and in that event might give a misleadingly low reading.)

You need a minimum of two in France because the frog police will ask you to use one and then fine you for not having one.

[original PM]

jeeeezzz 18 hours

so let get this straight

sit down for dinner with bottle of wine at 8

eat dinner and consume wine finishing last dregs at 11.30

go to bed

up at 8 -driving at 8.30 and I am now over the limit??

what a fookin farce

[d000hg]

Which is why my post then goes on to say the rule I follow and maybe 18 hours isnt long enough etc.

Do you have trouble reading English or is it just your eyesight that's at fault?

No, you're just an unpleasant arrogant ass who posts crap and thinks it's insightful.

[SimonMac]

Are you waiting for me to bite?

As long as you kiss it better afterwards

[mudskipper]

So we are allowed to ask you to blow on this?

Are you waiting for me to bite?

[SimonMac]

BBC News - Warning issued over 'drunk walking'

[SimonMac]

Yep, the morning after thing worries me. I'm sure I've probably sailed a bit close a couple of times.

Bring your breathalyser to the party, Nick - we need some party games

So we are allowed to ask you to blow on this?

[BolshieBastard]

Even that is vague because what does "consumed" mean - sipping a pint over an hour so it is already breaking down before you finish it, or drinking it in 10min and immediately driving. Presumably there's a delay between it going in your mouth and getting into your blood too e.g. if you necked 3 shots of rum and immediately drove the 5 minutes drive home, would you get home before you were over the limit?

Not that I suggest this is wise, but there must be some rate at which you can drink without ever going over the limit e.g. a pint every two hours and don't drive until an hour after the last one, etc?

Which is why my post then goes on to say the rule I follow and maybe 18 hours isnt long enough etc.

Do you have trouble reading English or is it just your eyesight that's at fault?

[FatLazyContractor]

Even that is vague because what does "consumed" mean - sipping a pint over an hour so it is already breaking down before you finish it, or drinking it in 10min and immediately driving. Presumably there's a delay between it going in your mouth and getting into your blood too e.g. if you necked 3 shots of rum and immediately drove the 5 minutes drive home, would you get home before you were over the limit?

Throw in the size of person for making it a bit more interesting ...

[d000hg]

I believe the limit in scotland means less than a pint should be consumed for a man or less than half a pint for a woman. (Cannot remember what the amount of wine is.)

Even that is vague because what does "consumed" mean - sipping a pint over an hour so it is already breaking down before you finish it, or drinking it in 10min and immediately driving. Presumably there's a delay between it going in your mouth and getting into your blood too e.g. if you necked 3 shots of rum and immediately drove the 5 minutes drive home, would you get home before you were over the limit?

Not that I suggest this is wise, but there must be some rate at which you can drink without ever going over the limit e.g. a pint every two hours and don't drive until an hour after the last one, etc?