A group of people gathered at the Justice Academy where South Carolina future police officers are trained, and drank vodka. It was all part of an exercise to help the students learng to administer field sobriety tests and figure out if someone is drunk or not.
The subjects of the drinking experiment were made up of news reporters, a law enforement officer and some of thier friends. One lady participant, who was of average size and middle aged, registered a .039 after just one vodka drink and on an empty stomach. She then registered a .053 after her second and then a .063 after her fourth.
It was explained by the instructor that eating makes a gigantic difference. They also explained a few of the common myths surrounding attempts to sober up that just don't work. For example, drinking coffee, large amounts of water and taking a cold shower, just do not work. A drunk's only friend when trying to sober up is, time. And obviously, the more you have drank, the more time you will need.
After her fourth drink, she registered a .096. Other participants had much different results. One person who weighed 217 pounds, was a mere .074 with five drinks, while another one who weighed 175 pounds reached .110 after the same amount of drinks. And yet a very small woman gave a reading of .089 after just two drinks. The point is, what people register can greatly vary from person to person.
Another thing that was explained was some DUI statistics as SC is compared with the national average. In SC, 51 percent of car accidents in our state are alcohol related, while the national average is 40 percent.
And, South Carolina ranks number two in the country with alcohol related deaths. Just as staggering was that SC had 300 people murdered last year. However, there were 900 people who lost their lives to drunk drivers.
