What Does Over .08 Mean?
Section 253(b) of the Criminal Code of Canada makes it an offence to operate or have care and control of a motor vehicle, vessel, aircraft or railway equipment while your blood alcohol concentration is greater than 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood. In Canada this term is often shortened to 80 mg% and in the United States it is commonly called .08.
How do these numbers equate to how a person actually feels when under the influence of alcohol?
This is a difficult question to answer because it does depend on a person's tolerance level. A heavy drinker will be affected less than a light or non-drinker. However, forensic scientists agree that everyone is impaired with regard to their ability to operate a vehicle when their blood alcohol level reaches 100 mg% regardless of their drinking history.
When I trained to be a breath testing technician we took turns drinking in order to provide testing subjects for the others. I drank five bottles of beer and thought that I was truly impaired. I felt all the symptoms that we had been trained to expect to see and would never have considered getting behind the wheel until I had plenty of time to sober up.
My highest breath sample that day was less than 100 mg%.
From my own point of view, a person whose blood alcohol level was over 80 mg% knew at the time that they chose to drive that they should not be doing so. I don't doubt that the alcohol helped them make a bad decision, but the decision was still theirs. It was a choice to put all road users at risk.
- Constable Tim Schewe