Most people who get arrested on DUI charges find themselves under arrest on the same day that they consumed alcohol. Many times, they are just driving home from the bar or a social gathering – immediately after drinking. They went out to drink with their friends or family members, but they weren’t sober yet when they decided to drive home.
In other cases, though, drivers will sleep for the night, wake up in the morning, get behind the wheel and then get pulled over on impaired driving charges. In fact, some of them may find that they still have detectable alcohol in their system, and they could face DUI charges. How could this possibly happen the next day, when they haven’t even had anything to drink on the same day that they decided to drive their car?
Alcohol metabolism rates
To understand why this happens, you need to know how the body processes alcohol. It can slowly metabolize the alcohol in your system, reducing your blood alcohol concentration (BAC). But this is a slow process. Your BAC only falls by roughly 0.015% per hour.
After consuming a substantial amount of alcohol, someone simply may not have enough time for it all to clear out of their system. Say a college student stays out late with their friends, catches four hours of sleep, wakes up and drives to class. In four hours, their blood alcohol concentration would only go down by about 0.06%. So, if their BAC was very high the night before, they may not be back to zero by the time they try to drive in the morning.
A drunk conviction can bring significant ramifications like a license suspension, fines and fees, and time behind bars. When facing such charges, be sure you know what legal defense options you have.