I was a drunk for the cops

It’s a pretty simple message. You’ve heard it before. You’ll hear it again.

Don’t drink and drive.

And yet, people still do it.

In 2009, eight people were killed in Toronto in alcohol-related collisions, the same as in 2008.

According to Toronto’s holiday RIDE stats, 23 people were charged with impaired driving during police spot checks over 36 days while 76 people were given 90-day suspensions.  

Just north of the city, York Region officers arrested one guy after he was found passed out behind the wheel in a live lane of traffic.

Passed out.

In traffic.

But driving when really wasted is one thing. What about tipsy? Or buzzed? When they say, “Don’t drink and drive”, do they mean don’t have a drink, or two or 10?

I recently had a pretty strange day on the job.

I was invited to York Region’s 4 District station to participate in a field sobriety testing training course for police officers.

As a volunteer, I drank.

Rum.

At 10 in the morning.

Along with volunteers from the 911 call centre, I drank in the basement of the police station under the watchful eye of Constable-turned-bartender for the day Roman Santos.

He carefully monitored our “dosage”, as he called it, serving up drinks in red plastic cups as we chatted, played games and drank.

It wasn’t unlike a house party or restaurant setting.

Only we were served carefully measured drinks, escorted to the washroom and watched closely.

After three drinks, an officer came by to check on me. First, there was a pulse check and a blood pressure check and then the breathalyzer.

At this point, I was feelin’ happy.

You know, that feeling. Like you stand up, and you just feel … like you’ve had a drink. Not drunk. Not liquor-coursing-through-your-veins wasted. Just feeling a little happy.

I blew a 0.062.

Blood alcohol concentration — or BAC — measures the amount of alcohol in the blood. The legal limit for BAC is 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millitres of blood: 0.08. It’s a criminal offence to drive if your BAC is above 0.08.

An impaired charge, Santos explains, means your BAC level affects your ability to safely operate a motor vehicle.

In Ontario, police can now suspend a driver’s licence up to three days if the driver is in the warn range: that is, their BAC is between 0.05 and 0.08.

That means at 0.062 I wasn’t over the legal limit but I would have received a three-day suspension had I blown that in a roadside test.

Had I not been with a roomful of cops, would I have driven?

The truth? Maybe. I think I’d only had three drinks in about two hours.

I wasn’t told what I blew. Our bartender kept that a secret (until the next day).

We began to discuss who’d drive at that point, and who wouldn’t.

One volunteer said she would for sure. Another said he’d likely have another few drinks before he’d hand over his keys. One said she’d
have five drinks before getting in a cab.

“There’s that idea that unless I’m falling down drunk, it’s okay to drive,” Santos said. “As a traffic officer who’s seen firsthand some of the fatalies that have occurred due to impaired driving, the attitude does disturb me.

“At least in this case, it’s an eye-opener. It can change those people’s perceptions. So it is useful to people. They say they’d drive and I tell them (what they blew).”

Alcohol affects the body and brain in many ways, Santos said.

“Perception, coordination, reaction time, muscles, in some cases vision,” Santos said afterward. “You process information all at once. These systems are tied together.

“Driving is multitasking. You have to look for other cars, hit the gas, hit the brakes, signal.”

Even a small amount of alcohol affects these systems, he said.

“It’s a split second decision that could change everything,” Santos said.

As the day went on, we kept drinking. We snacked and had lunch. Chatted about one volunteer’s upcoming wedding, and another’s trip to Cuba.

By 2 p.m., we were all pretty happy when we headed upstairs to the Intoxilyzer 5000 — a heavy-duty breathalyzer machine.

I had to blow on it for what felt like an eternity.

Still, the officers wouldn’t tell me what level I was registering.

At this point, though, I most definitely wouldn’t get behind the wheel.

We walked over to the training centre area and met up with a bunch of officers who were undergoing training in field sobriety testing.

Some were veterans of the force, with upwards of 30 years on the job, and others were rookies.

Santos said the field sobriety testing is useful because while it’s easy to tell off the bat who’s falling down drunk, it’s the less obvious intoxication that poses more of a challenge for police.

So, officers are trained to administer three standardized tests at the roadside:

• A “horizontal gaze test”, where you have to carefully watch as the officer moves a pen around in front of your eyes,
• A walk-and-turn test, where you’ve got to listen to detailed instructions and walk the line,
• A stand-on-one-foot test, where you’ve got to do just that.

We all underwent the tests by the trainees, and afterwards we were breathalyzed again.

To me, it doesn’t matter who “passed” the field sobriety and who didn’t. Yes, some people blew over 0.100 and didn’t exhibit too many clues. Yes, some people could have “beat” the field sobriety tests. Yes, some people consumed a lot of drinks and still didn’t blow over.

What was interesting to me was how many volunteers still said they’d drive.

And I’m not chastising anyone. I’m just saying. They said they felt fine.

Six out of eight volunteers said they’d drive home at that point. Four were over 0.05 BAC. One had blown 0.127.

There are a few morals to this story.

One: It’s hard to tell what your own blood alcohol level is. Even if you feel like you know your body.

Two: The number of drinks is a poor measure of whether you can drive or not. After three drinks I was in the warn range. I could have had my licence suspended. By the end of the day, one volunteer drank 8.5 ounces of alcohol and blew 0.32. I drank 7 ounces of alcohol and blew 0.97.

“It depends on your body, how you process alcohol, what you ate that day, and much more,” Santos said.

Three: Just don’t.

“My message personally: just don’t drink and drive. Don’t risk it. Don’t do it,” Santos said. “Take a $20 cab instead of spending the $20,000 in legal fees if something happens.

“It’s not worth it.”