Gardai will be out in force this Christmas, targeting a number of offences including drink driving.
With today being St Stephen's Day, there are warnings that the morning after can be a particularly dangerous period for drink drivers. Drinkaware is encouraging the public to be mindful this festive season, and to take extra care when deciding to go behind the wheel after a big night out.
According to Drinkaware, it takes at least one hour to process one standard drink. Examples of a standard drink are half a pint of beer, 100ml glass of wine, or a standard measure of spirits.
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The time starts from when the last drink is finished. For example, if a person finished three pints of beer at midnight, they will have consumed six standard drinks. This means they need six hours from midnight when they stopped drinking before their body will have processed the alcohol and they should not drive a car until 6am at the earliest.
Worried you could be over the limit this Christmas? Drinkaware have an alcohol calculator that will tell you how long it will take to process the amount of drink you have. Here are some examples of wait times after having a few drinks.
5 pints of Guinness or Heineken
If you have 5 pints of Guinness, Heineken, Carlsberg or some other lager or stout in and around 4.5%, according to Drinkaware you can't drive for 10 hours after you finish your last drink. So if you finish drinking at midnight, you can't drive until 10am the following morning.
If you have a heavy night out and drink 10 pints by midnight, you won't be able to drive until 8pm the following night.
1 bottle of wine
If you polish off one bottle of red or white wine you will have to stay off the road for eight hours after you finish, according to Drinkaware.
5 gin and tonics
Drinking 5 gin and tonics would mean no driving for 5 hours after your final drink.
Calculate your own
The figures above are estimated amounts. The only way to remove alcohol from your system is time, no amount of food or water will speed up the process, say Drinkaware.
If you want to calculate your own, head on over to this drinkaware.ie page.
Binge drinking is defined as consuming 60 grams of pure alcohol - six or more standard drinks - in one sitting. This is the equivalent of three pints of cider (568ml), six bottles of lager (330ml) or four glasses of prosecco (150ml).
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