You know that drunk driving is against the law, however, that doesn’t stop many people who think one or two drinks won’t hurt them, then get in their car and driving like they would any other day. Instead, drunk driving is not only reckless and can hurt the driver but it’s dangerous to everyone around them. That’s why many police officers, when suspecting a driver is under the influence of drugs or alcohol, will perform a traffic stop, preventing the driver from endangering others.
Police may ask the driver to perform a standardized sobriety test – a kind of evaluation based on the driver’s movements and reaction time. However, the best result to judge whether a driver is drunk is by using a breath test, a hand-held, radio-sized machine, which tests a driver’s blood-alcohol content (BAC).
What’s the purpose of testing a driver’s BAC levels? Here’s what you should know:
Driving above the legal blood-alcohol content limit
As stated above, BAC stands for blood-alcohol content, which is the level of alcohol in a person’s bloodstream. Oklahoma follows the statewide average drinking and driving limit of 0.08% BAC. When the BAC of a driver is 0.08% or above then they are considered legally too intoxicated to be behind the wheel of any vehicle, under any circumstances.
A drunk driver’s reaction time slows down the more they drink. They may make less rational decisions and may even experience impaired motor control at higher levels of inebriation. That can lead to crashes that leave others injured — or worse. If you’ve been the victim of a driver who was legally impaired, you have every right to expect compensation for your injuries and other losses.