As a general rule, there are three times you always hurry home before the bars let out for the evening: Fridays, Saturdays and holidays. You have no desire to share the road with the number of drunk drivers you suspect might be out there.
Unfortunately, you could be in just as much danger from a drunk driver the next morning. All those folks who slept on a friend’s couch have to head home sometime — and they may not be fully sober when they do.
How can someone stay drunk overnight?
For the most part, every healthy liver metabolizes alcohol at the same rate — about one standard drink per hour. However, there’s a lot more at work in the human body than just the liver. How fast it actually takes alcohol to clear someone’s system can be affected by:
- Age
- Ethnicity
- Body fat
- How fast the alcohol was consumed
- How much the person ate
- What that person ate
- Medications
Ultimately, it takes a lot longer for most people to sober up than they realize. According to the experts, someone who has had five beers with 5% alcohol shouldn’t drive for at least 11 hours after they quit drinking. Someone drinking three glasses of wine should give themselves 13 hours before they get behind the wheel. If they’ve been drinking liquor, it may be a full day before they’re fully sober.
What’s the basic message here? Well, you could encounter a drunk driver at any time — even early in the morning. If you’re injured in a wreck with someone who was making their way home after “sleeping it off,” they probably shouldn’t have been behind the wheel in the first place. Make sure that you take the appropriate steps to get the compensation you’re due for your injuries and losses.
