r/dashcams • u/wronghoIe • 18h ago

Flipping your car at 5 mph

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u/HockeyandTrauma 17h ago

Depends on how often he drinks. As a former ED nurse, I've seen people at .4 and above seemingly sober, and .15 absolutely plastered.

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u/throwawayshirt2 14h ago

Back in the day I did arraignments for a public defender firm. Still remember a woman in custody on a DUII who blew a .4-something. According to the police report, she was not seemingly sober, but she was walking and talking at a BAC that would put most people unconscious and/or in the hospital.

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u/HockeyandTrauma 7h ago

Highest I ever had was this mid 30s woman who was about .695, and was sober enough to walk around and hit on every male in the dept.

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u/takemy_oxfordcomma 2h ago

Holy shit, that’s so fucking high. I’m surprised anyone can physically live at that level, much less be walking around and talking to people.

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u/TheTsunamiRC 15h ago

My favorite was an alcoholic who came in because he fell and broke his leg while shoveling snow...with an ethanol of 560.

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u/AristotlesBoyPussy 17h ago

what method did you use to determine the bac? the cops equipment is frequently wrong, especially if the person is both drunk and also used mouthwash

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u/HockeyandTrauma 17h ago

Blood. We pass it around, taste it, guess, then send it to the lab. Price is right rules winner gets an extra turkey sandwich.

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u/APolyAltAccount 17h ago

Oh cool so kinda like the Scoville scale!

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u/narwhal_breeder 17h ago

huh in my lab we always just consulted The Bones.

The Bones being the somewhat animate glass skeleton (or maybe quartz? its hard to say could be dirty glass or quartz, its very, very smooth though) that you couldn't look in the eyes or your life's essence would escape into the Great Unknown. We of course never told the interns - the look on their uncorporeal face as they are cast out of their fleshy husks and sent hurtling to the deepest, blackest void gets me everytime.

Anyways, it would go something like this.

We would take the blood (1L or so, less would anger The Bones) - and place 4 yew sticks floating on top of it, tied into a square with a few strands of hair taken from a hole in the ground that's been in there for as long as The Bones has been. There's always hair in there, and we definitely have never filled it. But what can you do man the building is pretty old.

Then, you take a sip, and then, head always looking down, offer a drink to The Bones. You may hear it move, and see it get closer. It will take a long drink.

You can then ask it one question about the blood. Who it belonged to, what is its type, if it has any pathogens, ect, but usually we're just using it to run a CBC, BMP, or BAC test. It will answer in the voice of the persons whos blood it is (took us forever to figure that one out).

You can ask it one question per drink it takes. That's usually 3 or 4. Saves money on reagents because all you need for The Bones is blood and yew.

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u/HockeyandTrauma 17h ago

Knowing what I know about lab sciences, this makes perfect sense. I would imagine this is a standard across the country.

(Also this is fucking fantastic, well done)

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u/narwhal_breeder 17h ago edited 12h ago

Actually The Bones has been at only one lab i've ever worked at. Not 100% sure why.

He was actually made sometime in the early 1800s - we have the records of how it was made, but the beancounters called the process "prohibitively expensive and so shockingly unethical this would constitute a heinous crime even by the standards of a conquering Mongol Empire".

I know the process uses components from at least 3 now extinct species of insects, and some plants we weren't ever able to confirm they ever existed in the greater scientific community, but thats small potatoes compared to what you have to do specifically, to the one person who becomes the base of The Bones. That person doesn't so much become The Bones. It's more their body is used like a plastic injection mold - and buddy we don't have any seams to get it out nicely.

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u/HockeyandTrauma 17h ago edited 16h ago

I wish I had an award to give you.

EDIT: Turns out I do!

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u/AristotlesBoyPussy 17h ago

Carlos, did you escape from Night Vale just to post on reddit?

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u/sidepart 12h ago

Huh. I just assumed the surplus test blood is where bitters came from.

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u/hoppydud 17h ago edited 17h ago

ED is blood draw since theres no real way to alter it. I wouldnt worry about false positive from mouth wash either. 15 minutes is enough to clear all of it. The police are aware of this and if you say you just used mouth wash they will just wait the 15.

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u/AristotlesBoyPussy 17h ago

neat, didnt know how fast it could dissipate.

that also means the cop who tried to get my dad for drunk driving in the 90s literally poured mouthwash on his breathalizer AFTER pulling my dad over

(it was a racist stop, dark man driving, 0.000% BAC according to blood draw within 30 minutes time of the 0.24% according to breathalizer, which smelled noticably minty. My dad drinks but he never drinks and drives).

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u/hoppydud 47m ago

Oh for sure the blood never lies. Also proved his sobriety no doubt. Cop probably poured his personal stash on the breathalyzer on purpose. Glad worked out for your dad.

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u/EggnSalami 17h ago

The BAC that health care providers see is a medical blood draw in the ED, not a legal test. The cops need a warrant for a legal blood draw which is sent to a state lab and health care providers do not see those results. I am a doctor who works in trauma so I see this process a lot

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u/singlemale4cats 13h ago

We don't need a warrant with consent, and if we have to get one, their license is automatically getting suspended for a year and we still get what we need. Not always easy to reason with a drunk person, though. They think if they refuse everything they'll get away with it.

I can't say for sure about where you work, though. Maybe your state always requires a warrant for blood. I don't know of any jurisdictions that do it like that.

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u/EggnSalami 12h ago

You’re right, I’ve definitely seen the cops get blood without patient consent, but I believe in my state they have to have a warrant of some sort from a judge, I’ve heard them on the phone getting them before getting the legal blood draw. The cops just have to read a statement saying that they waived consent and they have a warrant. I live in a very lenient state when it comes to drunk driving (WI) so I wouldn’t be surprised if the licenses aren’t automatically revoked here if they don’t consent but I’m not familiar with that part

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u/HockeyandTrauma 15h ago

My favorite is when cops demand their bloodwork results and I tell them to fuck off. Got in a screaming match with a local suburban "rich" town cop over it, and still relish the "get the fuck out of my Emergency Dept" I belted out.

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u/Adventurous-Fuel-126 17h ago

Er nurses take your blood

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u/Nefarious_Partner 16h ago

Hmm I'm not sure, how the fuck do you think a hospital determines that u/AristotlesBoyPussy?

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u/ssracer 15h ago

I generally keep mouthwash in the car to swish it around after drinking. Who doesn't?

/s

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u/singlemale4cats 13h ago edited 13h ago

the cops equipment is frequently wrong

It's quite accurate. Bullshit caselaw surrounding DUIs has rendered PBT results generally inadmissible in court unless the defense brings it up first, but in my experience, it's consistent with the highly calibrated machine in lockup (datamaster/intoxilyzer) or blood test results.

especially if the person is both drunk and also used mouthwash

There's a 15 minute observation period where the person can't eat/drink/chew/smoke/regurgitate anything for a reason. That's enough time for any residual alcohol or alcohol-like substances (sugar alcohols in gum, for example) to dissipate.

If the person tries to stall with any of the above for the evidentiary test, eventually we'll call that a refusal and just get blood. If they do it for the PBT we just move on, because, while we want a result, we don't need it.

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u/AristotlesBoyPussy 10h ago

In your experience?

How much experience do you have with comparing results of a breathalizer vs blood test?

 person tries to stall with any of the above for the evidentiary test, eventually we'll call that a refusal

Ah you're a pig, no wonder you say its all accurate, you have an agenda. Fuck off, pig.

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u/singlemale4cats 10h ago edited 9h ago

I say it's accurate because it is accurate. It's been proven to be accurate. If anyone could prove otherwise, it wouldn't be allowed as evidence in court. Regarding the evidentiary tests, anyway. I've never seen the preliminary breath samples differ by more than what can be explained by elimination or digestion times, but defense attorneys have managed to create enough reasonable doubt that they have disallowed them in general.

Do you see how stupid you become when you reflexively rage at things you don't understand or don't like? You sound like a petulant child.

You should probably just stop driving drunk.

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u/MyMiddleNutItches 14h ago

Jesus, 4%? Human Michelob Ultras just walking around.

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u/cjsv7657 14h ago

.4 meaning 0.4% alcohol so less than michelob ultra by a factor of 10 and about the same as a non-alcoholic beer.

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u/drunk_lizard8414 6h ago

This is much more amusing reading this as erectile disfunction