Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob Petrie E395
when this all came out a couple of weeks ago on dragracing online I asked my sister in law about this. She works for the state of Virginia crime lab and regularlly testifies in both drug and alcohol DUI cases. Basiclly what I understand now is if we have alcohol in our bodies when we die it turns into a ethanol type substance and by doing blood work and calculating the amounts of it in your blood they can determine how much you may have had to drink or what your blood alchol level might have been at the time of death. She went on to say as a example that if a cdl licened person such as myself were to go out and drink heavily the night before work and get in a truck wreck early the next morning it is likely I would show this kind of stuff in my system and If I survived the accident I would lose my cdl license in most states. My understanding is that while you may not appear or act drunk all of the effects even the next day are not completely out of your system. She tried to go on about a bunch of other stuff relating to how the body breaks down alcohol but to be honest alot of it was scientific crap that was way over my head and I would have trouble explaining it or I would.
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For conversation purposes I’ll agree with your sister in-law.
However the higher the level of trauma….the higher the natural alcohol (Ethanol) level will be and can make it difficult to make and accurate assessment and that is what it makes it hard to prove in legal cases where the levels are tested post mortem.
I think most will agree that the level of trauma in this case is off the charts.