We Cheeseheads are reeling in ignominy from a recent study which shows that we lead the nation in drunk driving.
Wisconsinites drive under the influence of alcohol - or, at least, admit to it - at a higher rate than the residents of any other state, a newly released federal study shows.
More than 26% of Wisconsin adults 18 and older told government researchers in massive nationwide surveys that they had driven under the influence in the previous year.
I went to look at the study but "driving under the influence" and "drunk driving" weren't defined for me. What questions were asked and how were they phrased?
If I drive over to my local watering hole, drink several Boilermakers, and hop back into my car for the trek home, we would all say that I am a drunk driver. Now, let's say I drive the family over to the Avenue Bar for a ritual Friday night fish fry. With my meal I have a beer. As I prepare to get behind the wheel once again afterwards, am I "drunk driver" either in the vernacular or by the definition used by the study? Technically I would be driving under the influence of alcohol. Wouldn't I also be so if I had had but one sip of my girlfriend's beer?
The report doesn't tell anyone who lives in Wisconsin anything they don't already know. It is so broad as to be useless. The authors of the study, Paul Soglin, and others are correct to note the drinking culture of Wisconsin generally as the main factor involved in the raw numbers. But how do you change the state's culture? The study doesn't seem to offer any help here. It gives statistics for persons aged 18 and older. So do we need to look more closely at young adults or are our senior citizens the most heinous offenders? Should we start pulling the liquor licenses of supper clubs or should taverns in towns and urban areas be shuttered? How many people have a drink after work at home and then drive? Do we commit resources to try and convince people to not drive even after having one drink with a meal? Or do we want to try to use limited resources in preventing people who've had several drinks from getting behind the wheel?
Another thing that the study doesn't address is why 74% of Wisconsonians didn't drive "under the influence" the year prior to being asked. To be sure, some folks just don't drive. Do the rest not participate in Wisconsin's culture of alcohol? And just what is our culture of alcohol?
2 comments:
From my days as a survey research practitioner: if this was the same study we did for the CDC, the questions we asked about alcohol were roughly this.
"An alcoholic drink is considered to be one bottle of beer, one glass of wine, one shot of alcohol or one bottle of wine cooler.
In the past month have you had any alcoholic drinks such as (repeat list)?
On average how many days per week did you drink any alcoholic beverages?
On the days you drank, how many drinks did you have on average?
At any time in the past 30 days did you have 5 or more drinks on one occasion?
At any time in the past 30 days did you drive when you had had perhaps too much to drink?"
Those are my rough estimations. I must have asked thousands of Wisconsinites those questions...
The D.
p.s. The answer to your question is, with your body height and weight (and gender) factored in, you would likely not be near the legal limit of 0.8 Blood Alcohol Concentration.
But if you had three drinks, one before and two with dinner, you would likely be closer to the legal limit.
p.p.s. It wasn't until I started doing that survey that I learned that "5 or more drinks on one occasion" was a binge. And that's counting drinks as 12 oz of beer, 1 oz liquor, 4 oz wine, etc. So "binging" is happening on a wide scale in every bar in this state every night of the week, surely.
The D
Here is a calculator for BAC
http://www.insure.com/articles/carinsurance/blood-alcohol-calculator.html
Yep, I was WAY over the level Tuesday night (although they only give you 6 hours to drink in, and I was working with more time than that).
The D
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