Some people think that a night’s sleep is all they need so that they can be ready to drive. After a night of heavy drinking, they may crash for a few hours at a friend’s house and then drive home in the morning, honestly thinking there is no danger.

The reality, though, is that you can still be drunk enough the next morning to get a DUI, even if you haven’t had any alcohol in hours. If you’re pulled over in Colorado Springs, you could still be charged.

Back in 2009, an investigation was done to see how long the alcohol would last in a person’s bloodstream. A man was given six to eight drinks in the evening, and he took three hours to drink them all. When he was done, he went to sleep and stayed in bed for around six hours. After waking up, professionals measured his blood alcohol concentration to see if he would be able to drive.

What they found was that he still had a BAC of .069. Technically, he was under 0.08, which is the limit. However, he was also given one of the standard field sobriety tests, and he failed it. This means that he still could have been charged for being impaired, regardless of his BAC.

While the BAC had fallen dramatically from the night before, when it was at 0.156, it was still much higher than normal. Additionally, many people will go out and drink for longer than three hours, consuming more than six drinks, and so they could theoretically still be over the legal limit.

If you’ve been given a next-day DUI, make sure you know what legal options you have.

Source: WMBF, “Investigation: Next day DUI,” accessed July 13, 2015

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