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It’s a common scenario. When the clock strikes five, coworkers throughout the city head to their favourite watering hole to grab a bite to eat and down a few alcoholic beverages.
But how much is too much before it’s too late to get behind the wheel?
The question is one many drivers fail to think about before putting the key in the ignition, says Sgt. Conrad Moschansky with the city police impaired driving countermeasures unit.
Two male and two female members of the Edmonton Sun newsroom recently sat down with their favourite alcoholic beverages and two city police officers to find some answers.
Police can use two different instruments for breath samples when they pull over a suspected impaired driver — a digital hand-held device that gives an approximate reading of a warning or fail, and an intoxilyzer machine at a police station or Checkstop bus.
Under the province’s new legislation, a digital reading between 60 to 99 mg% on the hand-held device warrants an immediate 72 hour suspension and a mandatory tow. Under the old legislation, a digital reading between 50 to 99 mg% would warrant a 24-hour suspension and parking the car.
It didn’t take long before reporters Allison Salz and Pamela Roth began to feel the effects of alcohol after consuming two drinks in about an hour — double vodkas for Salz and light beer for Roth.
Salz blew a caution with the handheld device, meaning under the province’s new legislation, her licence would be automatically suspended for three days and her car towed to the impound for the same amount of time. She was aware she was in no shape to drive, while the others were just getting started.
After consuming one more beer, Roth was teetering dangerously close to a caution with 57 mg% during a second breath sample on the intoxilyzer machine.
Drinking four double tequilas, photo editor Tom Braid was receiving an immediate 72 hour suspension and a mandatory tow at 63 mg%, while video editor Nathan Martin was barely feeling the effects at 48 mg% after three beer. Still, he didn’t feel comfortable driving after the first beer. Neither did Roth.
Const. David Green has seen some drivers being more cautious with the amount of alcohol they consume since the new drinking and driving laws took effect Sept. 1.
Green said only time will tell if the harsher penalties will change driver’s attitudes.
“The intelligent people are getting it. How do you teach the ignorant? They are going to do it no matter what you tell them,” he said.
As of last month, police had already laid 1,800 criminal impaired driving charges. So far the worst night of the year was on St. Patrick’s Day when police found 14 impaired drivers in an eight hour shift. On another night, a man stunned police when he blew 307 mg%, yet hardly looked impaired.
The lengths some people go through to try and defeat a breathalyzer test is astounding.
Some put change in their mouth or eat paper. Moschansky saw one man drink out of the toilet at a police station, hoping he would dilute whatever was in his system.
Other visitors to the Checkstop bus pull out all the stops to sober up. Moschansky has seen and heard it all, from the laughers and criers, to the men who want to take on a bus full of police.
“We should call our bus the portable gym. We’ll get guys who break into push ups,” said Moschansky. “The only thing that sobers you up is time.”
Police have spent a staggering amount of money trying to get drunk drivers off the road. The CheckStop bus is $160,000, the hand held digital breath devices are $600 a pop and a new intoxilyzer machine is $11,000.
Inside the bus is a special reminder of the dangers of driving impaired. On the wall is a photo of Michael Semotiuk — a four-year-old boy killed when a drunk driver T-boned the vehicle being driven by his father on Good Friday 14 years ago. The pain and suffering his family has gone through since then never goes away.
“I miss him with all my heart. He was important to us and everybody around us. It doesn’t just go away,” said his grandmother Susan, noting he would have turned 19 in October. “It’s so senseless. It’s so easy not to get behind the wheel. It should have never happened.”
pamela.roth@sunmedia.ca
@SUNpamelaroth
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Reading ranges on the digital hand-held device prior to Sept 1, 2012:
Digital reading: 0-49 mg% = free to go Caution: 50-99 mg% = 24-hour suspension and park your car (if applicable) Fail: 100 mg% and higher = person is arrested for impaired driving and a demand made for a breath sample into the Intoxilyzer
Reading ranges on the hand held device as of Sept 1, 2012:
Digital reading: 0-59 mg% = free to go Caution: 60-99 mg% = 72-hour immediate suspension and mandatory tow with their car held for three days Fail: 100 mg% and higher = person is arrested for impaired driving and a demand made for a breath sample into the Intoxilyzer
* If a driver challenges a caution on the hand-held device, and they provide another sample on the intoxilyzer machine with a reading of 50 mg% and up, the suspension stands. They will be handed a 72-hour immediate suspension and mandatory tow. A criminal charge of blowing over 80 mg% on the intoxilyzer won’t be laid until 90 mg%.
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Participants:
Tom Braid Age: 51 Size: 6’4, 260 lbs Drink: Tequila and club soda (40% alcohol, two ounce drinks) Full stomach
Allison Salz Age: 26 Size: 4’11, 130 lbs Drink: Grape vodka and club soda (35% alcohol, two ounce drinks) Empty stomach
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