RIP -- Ryan Dunn

[MR_Soren]

I was inclined to jump into the "fuck you" crowd, but his BAC, while over double the legal limit, was under .2. That would have been below what the legal limit while I was growing up. The legal limit has been shifted downwards to write more tickets rather than to promote safety because you can barely have a drink with lunch and be legal these days. There are people who can drive much better at a .2 BAC than a lot of other people can drive completely sober. I don't think alcohol made him crash.

The real issue here is that he was pushing the car hard and went off the road. Guy made a mistake and got himself (and his buddy) killed. People in sports cards (drunk or sober) have accidents like this all the time. I'm not a fan of this guy, but lay off. He wasn't "drunk".

[Udderdude]

Reckless, dangerous driving can just as easily kill innocents (See: Street racing, etc.) and while alcohol may have not been a major factor, it certainly wasn't helping things any (Impaired judgment).

[burgerkingdiamond]

I was inclined to jump into the "fuck you" crowd, but his BAC, while over double the legal limit, was under .2. That would have been below what the legal limit while I was growing up. The legal limit has been shifted downwards to write more tickets rather than to promote safety because you can barely have a drink with lunch and be legal these days. There are people who can drive much better at a .2 BAC than a lot of other people can drive completely sober. I don't think alcohol made him crash.

The real issue here is that he was pushing the car hard and went off the road. Guy made a mistake and got himself (and his buddy) killed. People in sports cards (drunk or sober) have accidents like this all the time. I'm not a fan of this guy, but lay off. He wasn't "drunk".

There was a time when 0.2 was legal? I never knew that. You bring up an interesting point. I would like to know what my BAC is during different stages of drinking during. I don't know what .08 feels like or .16. I just know buzzed, drunk, sloppy and blackout. I know you can buy breathalyzers but I kind of doubt their accuracy.

[MR_Soren]

I was inclined to jump into the "fuck you" crowd, but his BAC, while over double the legal limit, was under .2. That would have been below what the legal limit while I was growing up. The legal limit has been shifted downwards to write more tickets rather than to promote safety because you can barely have a drink with lunch and be legal these days. There are people who can drive much better at a .2 BAC than a lot of other people can drive completely sober. I don't think alcohol made him crash.

The real issue here is that he was pushing the car hard and went off the road. Guy made a mistake and got himself (and his buddy) killed. People in sports cards (drunk or sober) have accidents like this all the time. I'm not a fan of this guy, but lay off. He wasn't "drunk".

There was a time when 0.2 was legal? I never knew that. You bring up an interesting point. I would like to know what my BAC is during different stages of drinking during. I don't know what .08 feels like or .16. I just know buzzed, drunk, sloppy and blackout. I know you can buy breathalyzers but I kind of doubt their accuracy.

Well, I'm beginning to doubt my memory. Perhaps this is a case of history being rewritten by the victors (MADD in this case) but I can't find any suggestion that the legal BAC anywhere in this country was ever above .15. On the other hand, this information might simply be too old to find on the internet, or perhaps I am remembering numbers from a different system of measurement.

I also thought that one drink puts you up to about .1, but now I'm reading that one drink only adds .02 or .03 to your BAC. If that is true, then this Dunn guy was fucking hammered and I take back what I said.


EDIT: Those numbers above do not jive with this:

n July 2008, a driver was arrested ... A breath test showed his blood alcohol level was at 0.491% ... The police later stated that his blood alcohol level was the highest they had ever seen for someone who hadn't died of alcohol poisoning. It was later estimated that the driver had consumed 10-14 drinks over the course of 1–2 hours.

This would suggest that each drink adds about .04 or .05 to your BAC after you factor in the body metabolizing a drink every hour which puts Dunn around 4-6 drinks rather than 10+

I think somebody is tweaking numbers to scare people sober, so I don't know if there is any way to be sure exactly how much Dunn was drinking. Heck, it was probably just a hit and and the alcohol story is a cover up.

[Acid King]

I think pretty much anyone would be at least over the limit with 3 beers and 3 shots. Light beers aren't much lower in alcohol, and a shot is equivalent to about a beer. Though that's not to say that it's not easy to kill yourself driving at over 100MPH anyway-- that's pretty much as irresponsible as driving under the influence. Combine the two and your odds of getting into a fatal crash I'm sure go up a lot.

There are a lot of complicating factors, most importantly that BAC doesn't necessarily reflect impairment. BAC depends on a person's metabolism and what they're drinking. Though not perfect, BAC calculators show a guy my size and drinking 6 light beers over 2 hours is right around the legal limit at .08 and I can honestly say that I wouldn't have much of a buzz from that. Now that his BAC is known though it's obvious that unless he was a straight up alcoholic he was pretty impaired.

[brentsg]

I was inclined to jump into the "fuck you" crowd, but his BAC, while over double the legal limit, was under .2. That would have been below what the legal limit while I was growing up. The legal limit has been shifted downwards to write more tickets rather than to promote safety because you can barely have a drink with lunch and be legal these days. There are people who can drive much better at a .2 BAC than a lot of other people can drive completely sober. I don't think alcohol made him crash.

The real issue here is that he was pushing the car hard and went off the road. Guy made a mistake and got himself (and his buddy) killed. People in sports cards (drunk or sober) have accidents like this all the time. I'm not a fan of this guy, but lay off. He wasn't "drunk".

I recall states having 0.1 as the legal limit and going to 0.08 but I haven't researched it. I really don't think it was ever 0.2. I also don't believe there are people out there driving better at 0.2 than sober folks.

Anything approaching 0.2 is pretty impaired and driving 132-140mph is going to require an alert person.

Edit: In 1988, 1 state in the USA had a legal limit of 0.12. There were 47 states that had limits of 0.1. There were 3 states that had already moved to 0.08 BAC.

[Acid King]

I recall states having 0.1 as the legal limit and going to 0.08 but I haven't researched it. I really don't think it was ever 0.2. I also don't believe there are people out there driving better at 0.2 than sober folks.

Anything approaching 0.2 is pretty impaired and driving 132-140mph is going to require an alert person.

Edit: In 1988, 1 state in the USA had a legal limit of 0.12. There were 47 states that had limits of 0.1. There were 3 states that had already moved to 0.08 BAC.

Earlier laws were actually based on impairment, like driving erratically and acting, well, intoxicated. Now .08 is the de facto national standard because the feds tied funding for federal highways to it, so states either had to lower their limits or not get funding.

On a side note, one of the more bullshit aspects, which Soren touched on with the stuff about MADD, is that any accident where the driver has alcohol present in their system is classified as alcohol related. Remember that the next time you hear the neoprohibitionists trot out accident rates.

[Nate]

Thank you Ryan Dunn for years of mindless, "over-the-edge" entertainment!

[Elixir]

That would be above the legal limit in New Zealand. 3 standards in the first hour and one each hour after that. Depending on what sort of shots he had they can vary between 1-4 standard drinks.

Also, when someone is killed by a drunk driver it's all good to hate on them, but when it's some famous dude everyone gets all mushy, what gives?

[Matsunaga]

I drove past the site where he crashed yesterday... Completely nuts to be going 130 mph there. It would be dangerous enough on a highway, but that's a two lane road, and not in great condition. I wouldn't do that sober, he may not have either. Alcohol obviously makes people do stupid things. Too bad there was someone else in the car with him.

[The Coop]

Keep in mind guys, not all drinks are created equal when it comes to BAC. 10-14 beers, 10-14 shots of whiskey, 10-14 jagermeisters... all will affect you differently. And if you start mixing them during the course of the night, then you could have a bunch of lightly alcoholic drinks with a couple of harder drinks.