EDMONTON – As the province prepares to enforce its tougher impaired driving legislation, many are wondering how much will be too much once the new law kicks in next year.
Under Bill 26, which was passed in the Legislature earlier this month and will be enacted next year, anyone who blows between 0.05 and 0.08 can have their vehicle impounded and their licence suspended for 3 days – that’s up from the 24-hour suspensions currently being enforced. To give people an idea of how many drinks could put them over 0.05, Global News conducted a little test – and you may be surprised by the results.
The experiment:
Four participants spent three hours drinking beers at their own pace, with a breath alcohol technician giving them a breathalyzer test 15 minutes after they put down their drinks.
“That’s to alleviate any kind of residue in the mouth or contamination,” explained Dana Blume.
While the “Life Loc Phoenix 6.0” breathalyzer Blume used on the participants is not the same one police use out on the road, Blume said it is similar and that it has been used by Sure-Hire for 100,000 occupational breathalyzer tests since 2004.
Our participants:
1. Trish Fedeyko – 5’3″, 120 lbs, normally consumes an average of 2 drinks per week
2. Janine Stauffer – 5’6″, 125 lbs, 7 drinks per week
3. Brad Lumley – 6’6″, 220 lbs, 10-20 drinks per week
4. Warren Minchau – 5’11”, 190 lbs, 2-3 drinks per week
Each participant had a substantial lunch a few hours earlier, and all but Brad had a good night’s sleep. All these details are among the factors that can affect how much a person can drink before becoming impaired.
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The results:
It only took 45 minutes for each of the participants to blow over 0.05.
Trish Fedeyko blew 0.077 after just two and a half beers – the same amount it took Janine Stauffer to blow 0.073. Brad Lumley, who consumed slightly almost double that amount blew 0.063, while Warren Minchau only needed three beers to blow 0.061.
An hour and a half later, the group underwent their final breathalyzer test, and each participant blew between two to three times over 0.05.
At four and a half bottles, Trish had drank the least, but blew 0.134 – just a bit lower than Janine, who blew 0.141 after six beers. Warren drank nearly seven bottles and blew 0.104; and Brad, who drank the most at ten bottles of beer, blew 0.128, which surprised him.
“I don’t drink and drive as it is but I feel like I could drive, technically,” he said.
Trish is also surprised by how little it took to get her over the limit.
“Before, I might’ve said ‘I’ve had one or two beer and it would’ve been safe, but this is a wakeup call,” she said. “This is just a big note to myself to say ‘no – one beer and you’re calling a cab, no matter what.”
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Since the passage of Bill 26 and even before its enactment, the tougher drunk driving legislation, sales of personal breathalyzer devices have been on the rise in Alberta.
Tim Salter, owner of Breathalyzer Canada, a distributor of digital, reusable, hand-held breathalyzers for personal use estimated that sales are up 10 times in our province in recent weeks.
Salter sells the devices online from $67 to $300, and claims the readings are accurate to within .005. He added, though, that the results shown by his devices will not stand up in court or sway police. Salter said, instead, the personal breathalyzers are meant to help educate people who don’t know how much they’ve had to drink, rather than to encourage them to drink more if they test lower than expected.
Police say they have concerns with personal breathalyzer devices, such as whether a person who has been drinking can operate it properly and they question how the products are made and calibrated.
“Any drinking creates a level of impairment. What we’re taking about is how impaired they are,” said RCMP spokesman Sgt. Patrick Webb.
“By far what we recommend is don’t worry about testing devices. Get a designated driver, take a taxi or find another way to not get behind the wheel. If you’re that concerned that you have to be onto one of these instruments, the question is there. So you shouldn’t be behind the wheel,” said Webb.
Since this year’s holiday checkstop campaign began earlier this month, more than 70 people have been charged with impaired driving, which is slightly less compared to last year.
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For a rough idea of how many drinks it might take you to blow over 0.05, you can test out the BAC calculator below:
With files from Laurel Clark, Global News and the Calgary Herald.
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