Crime & Safety

How Many Drinks Will Get You A DUI? (Chart)

If you insist on driving after a few drinks, here's what you should know about how alcohol affects your system—and your criminal record

 

Do you know how many drinks you can have before you're in danger of being busted for drunken driving? 

When police pull over drivers for suspected drunken driving, officers ask them to perform field sobriety tests and to take a breath test to measure blood alcohol content.

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A BAC test measures the percentage of alcohol present in a person's bloodstream. The legal limit in Illinois is 0.08. 

According to the Virginia Tech Alcohol Abuse Prevention website, every 40 minutes, 0.01 percent of alcohol leaves your system. 

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The limit for people under 21 is 0.02. But any alcohol consumption will get you charged if you're underage.

These charts show—in general—how many drinks it takes to become too impaired to drive. They're not exact, and they don't take a person's tolerance into account.

Police say the best way to keep yourself, your passengers and other motorists safe —and avoid a drunken driving charge—is to not drive after you've been drinking.


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