My BAC and Me

High BAC? Call C&C!

But what does BAC mean?

BAC stands for Blood Alcohol Content and, just like it sounds, is a measure of the alcohol content in your blood. POW…Mind blow.

The minimum BAC in all 50 states that will get you bagged for DWI is 0.08 of 1%. NOTE: that’s NOT .08%; it’s actually 0.0008, which would mean that you have successfully replaced 0.0008 of your blood (or the water that should be in it) with straight alcohol. That alcohol (or at least the alcohol that hasn’t yet been broken down by your liver) then gets pumped throughout your entire body, including to the brain, resulting in a unique medical phenomenon doctors refer to as “Drunky McWastypants.”

Occasionally I’ll get a call from a potential client who tells me they blew a “2.1” or something like that. As much as I would love to hear the details of how someone managed to replace 0.0021 of their blood with alcohol and somehow continue breathing (forget about driving!), I’ll quickly move on to other issues and assume, always correctly, that they really blew a 0.21. Why? Because they’d be far too busy attending their own funeral instead of calling me if they really blew a 2.1. While theoretically it may be possible to blow a 1.0 or higher, practically speaking it’s damn near impossible to get your BAC that high without first passing out and/or, ya know, dying. On average, even the most hardcore drinkers will black out around 0.4 to 0.5. Granted, alcohol effects everyone differently and depends on a lot of daily and personal variables, but if you’ve managed to get yourself to a 0.5, you should also manage to get yourself to a hospital (Call an ambulance! Better yet, have a coherent friend call the ambulance… Don’t drive yourself to the hospital!)

I’ve seen a lot of high BAC’s, the highest I think was somewhere around .38. I know another attorney who’s seen a 0.4-something. Even the prosecutors I speak with who only prosecute DWI’s can’t remember ever seeing anything above a 0.4-something. So keep that in mind the next time you think to yourself, “Psh, a .08 is nothing!” It is, in fact, a whole lot of something.

BUT! Just because your BAC reads high at the police station (or from a blood test) doesn’t mean it IS that high! That’s where we come in. If you’ve been charged with Aggravated DWI (in violation of NYS VTL Sec. 1192.2-a, having a BAC of .18 or higher), you need DWI defense attorneys who know how to defend you against those high – and potentially damning – numbers. You need Catalano & Carpenter LLP. Call (845) 454-1919 now to schedule a free DWI consultation.