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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

I wonder if the BMW having the highest DUI rate is just selection bias in who cops tend to pull over for such things (much like they do with red sports cars).

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I'm pretty sure that 50% of the cars driving between my city's downtown and the upper-middle class suburbs on a Friday and Saturday night are above the limit. Hell, I did it for years. Not saying it's a good idea, just that this sort of behavior is ingrained in upper-middle class culture. So, yeah, I think DUI rates are highly influenced by police bias towards certain makes/models/colors.

I agree. But the limit is set super low now in many states, you just need a drink or two a few hours ago to go over. I’m a teetotaler, so I don’t think about it much, but it’s definitely something that can catch someone unaware, and it’s a huge revenue source for local governments, so maybe they are just going after people who they know can pay up?

The only strategy for not getting a DUI these days is not drink anything and then drive, but our society is still not set up for that, the temporary success we had with Uber not lasting.

I’m not aware of any US state that has a DUI threshold below .08. Nobody is above that threshold after one drink, unless your “drink” consists of multiple drinks worth of alcohol (eg, a cocktail that’s technically multiple units of alcohol). Most people would be safe legally to drive after 2 drinks. If you waited an hour or 2 then even 3 drinks would be safe.

Not condoning anyone driving when they’re intoxicated, but it’s not like a single drink is enough to do it.

For a single standard drink to put them over the BAC limit, a person would have to weight less than 50 pounds. Legal standards of BAC are crazy if you think about them. A typical man would have to pound 3-4 drinks and then walk right out to his car immediately to exceed 0.08.

You are assuming the breathalyzer tests are very accurate, but anything below .1 their error margin begins to show. And many states will still fine you if they read anything above .02 if certain circumstances are met (eg kids in the car). A lot of legal advice in the subject goes simply don’t drive if you drink anything at all, because if you get pulled over you are coming out with some fine, or worse.

Well, that does seem like the best advice. I don't see why people drink or drive, much less drink and drive.

If you live in a place that doesn’t require driving, none of this is relevant at all. You can drink all you want in most of China, no one is worried about you driving because most aren’t (but some still do so the government had to crack down, though to be honest, I can’t tell the difference given the typical crazy driving style in Beijing).

Utah's BAC limit is (infamously?) 0.05. A single drink will put you over, or so the rumors go.

Huh, TIL. It appears Utah is the only state where it’s 0.05 it seems.

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