Is Buzzed Driving the Same as Drunk Driving?

Driving under the influence of alcohol (above a certain blood alcohol level) is a crime and can drastically impair a driver’s ability to operate a vehicle properly. If caught, a driver can face jail time and the financial ramifications can last years. 

 

Buzzed driving can take on similar characteristics of drunk driving but is not legally prohibited. While the two situations may be drastically different in terms of the law, physically, a body may be just as impaired driving while having alcohol that makes them buzzed as they can with a legal limit considered driving under the influence. 

 

Let’s explore the difference between drunk driving and buzzed driving and why experts believe the predictable impacts on driving are eerily similar.

What is Drunk Driving? 

In regards to having a drink or two before you drive, the federal limit to legally drive in the United States is a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.08%. Any blood alcohol content at or above that number is considered drunk driving or driving under the influence (DUI.) 

 

Getting behind the wheel of a car, bus, or truck when your blood alcohol limit has been reached is a serious crime and can lead to accidents, personal injury, vehicle damage, and fatalities. 

What is Considered Buzzed Driving? 

Driving with a blood alcohol level between 0.01% and 0.07% is considered buzzed driving and can negatively impair a driver in similar ways as driving under the influence. While this number is considered not illegal in most states, unless you are under the legal drinking age (Zero Tolerance BAC).

Impact of Alcohol on a Driver 

According to the Alcohol Rehab Guide, driving while under the influence can negatively impact driving skills. For example, a driver who has reached the legal limit of alcohol typically has a much slower reaction time, thus diminishing reaction time on the road should an incident happen. 

 

Research has also shown that drivers over the legal limit have lowered levels of concentration, lack of coordination, and reduced vision. All of these could be factors in the ability to quickly react to a situation on the road. 

 

Recent studies on people to be minimally buzzed or slightly buzzed, meaning they fall in the 0.01%-0.07% category were as responsible for being impaired behind the wheel when it came to fatalities and car accidents on the road. “The study focused on drivers with a BAC between .01 and .07 percent. The results showed that drivers with a BAC of .01 percent are 46 percent more likely to be blamed for car crashes than the other drivers involved in the collisions. The higher the BAC, the more often the drivers are blamed.”

 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration put it plainly when they released this chart showing how early on in the drinking process a driver can be influenced by physical effects. 

 

 

So ask yourself if having that one drink is worth your ability to react and think clearly down the road.