study: 1 in 12 legally drunk when leaving MLB or NFL game

http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/AB/20110524/SPT04/305240085/



Interesting "study."

 

Well, hell, if they're going to base the study in Milwaukee ...

 

I'm surprised it's only 1 in 12

 

If it's strictly adults and not factoring in all attendees, I'd be shocked it's only one in 12. That's what -- two beers or even maybe one of the tall boys some places serve.

Can't wait for their next study that 3 in 12 leaving a bar are legally drunk.

 

The only reason I or anyone else should care about the idea of "legally drunk" is if someone is about to drive. I found that part of the study, or at least the article about it, confusing:

– Thousands of fans leaving games and getting into their cars are drunk: Researchers took breathalyzer tests of 362 fans at 13 baseball and three NFL games and found 8 percent of them – 1 in 12 – were legally drunk, while 40 percent of them had at least something to drink. That 8 percent, when multiplied by the thosands of people attending games nationwide, leads to a staggering number.

They really got people who were about to drive to agree to a Breathalyzer test from some stranger? That sounds very odd to me.

So, I have no doubt about the numbers, except that they would be a little low. But "1 in 12 legally drunk" doesn't say anything about how many drivers are legally drunk, which, again, is the only thing I'd care about knowing.

 

Maybe the fans were offered a free beer for their time.

 

http://bloodalcoholcalculator.org/

 

Funny a story with investigative pretensions would rely so heavily on anecdotal evidence to make its point. I regularly sit among (as Dalton called them in Road House) the "trustees of modern chemistry" and other stunted adolescents. With rare exception, never a problem.

 

So Ray Lewis was wrong. Of course, throw in the time it takes to get out of parking lot (figure two or three more drinks)....

 

I'm always a bit suspicious of these calculators. If I go to a Rangers game, let's say I have three of their 20 oz light beers. Let's say it takes me 90 minutes to plow through those. I weigh 225. Per that calculator, my BAC will be .038%, which is not legally impaired in TX. Heck, I could slosh down another 20-ouncer in that same timeframe and still be only possibly impaired (BAC = .063%). But there is no way I would drink that fourth beer (and it's unlikely I'd drink the third; the wife and I usually get two each and then, maybe, split one more). It makes me wonder just how drunk "legally impaired" really is.

 

1 in 12 are legally drunk when leaving a game, huh? But enough about the players, what about the fans?

 

It's not the legally drunk people who are causing the problems. It's the one out of 10 of them that have sucked down a six pack or more and then think they are being filmed for a reality show.