An alarming number of alcohol related accidents and DUI's occur in the morning hours between 7:00 am and 9:00 am. The main reason for this is that most of these drivers drink alcohol the night before and do not allow enough time to pass for their body to metabolize the alcohol so that their BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) is below the legal limit. Most (90%) of the aclohol you drink leaves the body through a process known as metabolism which is a set of chemical reactions that break down the food that we eat. The human body metabolizes alcohol at a rate of .015 per hour. To estimate the time required so that you are legally sober enough to drive, you need to take your BAC level at the time you finish drinking and subtract .015 per hour from it. An example is one evening you leave the bar at 1:00 am and you have a BAC of .2, when you get in your car to drive to work at 8:00 am, 7 hours have passed which means your BAC would be close to a .10 (.2 - (7 hours x .015). At this point you are driving to work while legally drunk and you are probably totally unaware of it. In fact, the alcohol would not be totally out of your system until 3:00 pm that afternoon. This is calculated by taking the original BAC of .2 divided by .015 per hour or 13.33 hours. This is a very risky numbers game that could cost you dearly if you miscalculate. This is why I am a proponent of personal breathalyzers. It takes the risk away but the best bet is to never drink and drive.
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