RMNP DUI checkpoint

Friday night, July 15th, 10:30 pm, Bear Lake entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park, we were greeted by a surprise. Didn't think the entrance would be manned by rangers - and it wasn't. Instead, the Estes Park police department set up shop - right there at the entrance, DUI checkpoint. Gulp.

So it starts. That's too bad.

Being intoxicated while driving shouldn't be tolderated anywhere......

I don't see why a National Park is any different

I definately agree with you Jim, but there's a huge difference between being drunk, and being "over the limit".

Are you drunk after 2 beers? No, but to them you are. Feel bad for any of the park employee's who just got done eatin dinner at Eds and had 2 beers.

Plus they violate the 4th amendment. Too bad the gov doesn't take that constitution thing seriously.

You shouldn't be over the limit after 2 beers, unless you weigh 85 pounds and drank those 2 beers in 1 hour.

bloodalcoholcalculator.org/

Don't trust this or any other BAC calculator. After a friend of mine got at DUI we bought a calibrated alcohol meter (Alcohawk) and tested ourselves after a few beers. Some of the ladies were over the legal limit after one beer. The national limit is 0.08 but the Colorado limit where legal action is taken is only 0.05

After two 6.5% micros I was above the legal limit but I felt absolutely fine. I had no idea the limit was so low and easily reached.

Jim Amidon wrote:Being intoxicated while driving shouldn't be tolderated anywhere...... I don't see why a National Park is any different

Being intoxicated and driving and driving after two beers over dinner are two completely different things. Obviously. Only pigs and people who don't drink pretend otherwise. Checkpoints like this are illegal as hell but the pigs get away with doing shit like this because people refuse to stand up for their rights.

As far as the pigs are concerned they'll give you a DUI without any cause and it's your issue to prove that you weren't drunk. In lots of places you don't need to blow .08 anymore to get a DUI. The pork just needs to testify that they "think" you were intoxicated and that's good enough about 50% of the time. It's called REVENUE GENERATION!

Thanks for the heads up Wally!

beavs wrote:Strange. Seems to me they could generate a lot more revenue setting it up somewhere else. The biggest reason that people guilty of DUI's are a threat to society is all of the money they have to give the government.

Really? I know 3 people involved in drunk driving accidents that resulted in someone dying. That is unacceptable. I don't think it's about revenue. Though the .08 limit could be. I thought .1 was reasonable.

This just confuses me. Who are they trying to bust here? Campers who are coming back into the Park after dinner? NPS Employees? Very strange. There are waaayyy better places for the EPPD to set up shop. I hope this doesn't become common practice. Thanks for the heads up.

I doubt if anyone would argue that driving while distinctly intoxicated is a grand idea (for yourself or others), but the fact that a search and/or seizure scenario (which is still constitutionally questionable amongst many in the field) is happening in a place that many of us frequent for recreation is still a bummer.

Maybe you missed the point Jim...

caughtinside wrote: The Supreme Court disagrees with you.

That Rehnquist joker sold us all out (whether you drink or not).

A friend of mine got pulled over for making a "illegal turn" after having 1 beer at the southern sun. The cop was persistent in saying that he was drunk. Gave him a sobriety test, and breathalizer which he blew .04, but still took him in and slapped him with a DWAI. Luckily the DA was nice and waved everything but the "illegal turn"

beavs wrote:To be clear the limit is what I'm talking about, if someone is really hammered then of course they shouldn't drive and of course there should be consequences. But .05? Thats about money.

.05 is pretty obsured. I didn't realize it was that low in CO. Thanks for informing me before I come back out. 1/2 a PBR and your done.

Scott Hansen wrote:Don't trust this or any other BAC calculator. After a friend of mine got at DUI we bought a calibrated alcohol meter (Alcohawk) and tested ourselves after a few beers. Some of the ladies were over the legal limit after one beer. The national limit is 0.08 but the Colorado limit where legal action is taken is only 0.05 After two 6.5% micros I was above the legal limit but I felt absolutely fine. I had no idea the limit was so low and easily reached.

The BAC calculators are fine, but there are other factors that come into play and cumulatively can have a big effect on your BAC; e.g., how much food you have in your stomach, genetic differences in ethanol metabolism, and the period of time over which you drink. And subjective feelings of intoxication (as well as objective measures) are mightily influenced by one's drinking experience and habits. You, clearly an experienced drinker, are not affected nearly as much as someone who's a first-time drinker. In general, such a person would be on the floor after that much alcohol. You should also know that breathalyzers are not particularly accurate in the sense that many physiological factors as well as variation in the way the instrument is used can produce a wide range of variation in a test.

beavs wrote:Strange. Seems to me they could generate a lot more revenue setting it up somewhere else. The biggest reason that people guilty of DUI's are a threat to society is all of the money they have to give the government.

They set these things up all over, not just in the least likely of places. I got to go through one at the south end of Horsetooth Reservoir on July 3rd. They stopped everyone. EVERYONE. I'm sure they were trying to snag all the stereotypical drunken boaters coming off the lake. There was no initial breathalizer test or anything - just a fun-wrecker from the Larimer County Sheriff's Dept talking to drivers to make sure they weren't slightly wasted, and then he gave the "follow my finger with your eyes" test. Still, revenue generating bullshit.

@ Richard: I appreciate you recognizing my prowess as a seasoned drinker and from that high position I will again argue that the calculators are not fine. They give no way of accounting for the strength of beer. Take the brews at the Southern Sun for example. You could be quaffing a Quinns at maybe 4.5% or an FYI at 7% (and these are estimates since SoSun doesn't post the %ABV). Which value does the calculator use for "2 beers"? While I recognized the flaws inherent with the breathalyzers they are more accurate than on online calculator or a card in your wallet and they are what Johny Law uses.

Don't take my word for it. Get a meter and try it yourself. You'll be astounded at how little it takes to cross the legal line despite the subjective feelings of a lack of intoxication.

I even offer to meet up and let you use my Alcohawk had not I not trashed the sensor blowing in it drunk around the campfire...

Scott Hansen wrote:@ Richard: I appreciate you recognizing my prowess as a seasoned drinker and from that high position I will again argue that the calculators are not fine. They give no way of accounting for the strength of beer. Take the brews at the Southern Sun for example. You could be quaffing a Quinns at maybe 4.5% or an FYI at 7% (and these are estimates since SoSun doesn't post the %ABV). Which value does the calculator use for "2 beers"? While I recognized the flaws inherent with the breathalyzers they are more accurate than on online calculator or a card in your wallet and they are what Johny Law uses. Don't take my word for it. Get a meter and try it yourself. You'll be astounded at how little it takes to cross the legal line despite the subjective feelings of a lack of intoxication. I even offer to meet up and let you use my Alcohawk had not I not trashed the sensor blowing in it drunk around the campfire...

Of course the concentration of alcohol in a given drink is important if you're measuring your consumption by number of drinks and there are calculators that do take that into account (e.g., onlineconversion.com/bac.htm). The other factors I mentioned are not so easy.

It's too bad your meter is kaput. If you were willing, we could do a little test where you would measure your breath with the meter placed in subtly different positions and you'd see the variance in the output. Then we could compare that to blood samples taken at the same time which would be a much more accurate and consistent way of measuring BAC. I generally don't take my spectrophotometer on camping trips so it's not yet trashed...

EDIT: BTW, I just entered some data that may fit your case and it came out with a BAC of 0.074% (2 pints at 6.5%, 150 lbs, consumed over a 2 hour period).

@ Richard: Yeah, I'd not recommend carting your GC along on trips.

JLP wrote:I see you can get the Alcohawk at Walmart for ~$40 bucks. What a score. Between this and the weed checkpoints in Utah, I'm running out of places to climb. Maybe I should just stick to the Ironclads?

jeez, I hope the cops use a more accurate version, '+/- 0.01% at 0.02% B.A.C. sensor accuracy' read to me that if you were really 0.02% you could blow anywhere from 0.03 to 0.01, a pretty huge range

Scott Hansen wrote:@ Richard: Yeah, I'd not recommend carting your GC along on trips.

We wouldn't really need the instrument. Just some blood and vials to put it in. And no campfires. What do you say?