This Cary/Durham/Raleigh DUI/DWI lawyer often encounters individuals arrested for DUI/DWI after consuming alcohol and some form of caffeine. It’s a relatively common practice – after consuming a few drinks – have a couple of coffee before driving home, just to be sure. And the caffeine doesn’t necessarily come from just coffee anymore – liquor mixed with energy drinks are becoming increasingly popular at bars throughout the Raleigh, Durham, and Cary area.
So, doesn’t the caffeine make drivers more alert? Maybe not.
The definitive studies were done by researchers in Great Britain and reported in an article entitled, “Interactions of Alcohol and Caffeine on Human Reaction Time”, appearing in the scientific journal Aviation, Space and Environmental Medicine
The conclusions of the scientists:
” Caffeine and alcohol have a synergistic effect — that is, they combine to produce an accelerated effect. Rather than sobering a person up, as is commonly believed, coffee can actually increase the symptoms of alcohol.….Motor skills which involve delicate muscular coordination and accurate timing have been found to be adversely affected by caffeine.”
So a person who has consumed a few drinks (but otherwise under the legal limit) and some caffeine may have difficulty performing standard field sobriety tests – which rely almost exclusively on motor skills (i.e.- standing on one foot or touching a finger to the nose).
