Drinking a shot of beer in New York could get you arrested for drunken driving, thanks to a typo in a New York law passed this year.
Lawmakers approved a bill that sets the standard for driving while intoxicated at 0.18 grams of alcohol in a person's blood. But a person's body can produce that much alcohol naturally, according to Rochester DWI lawyer Ed Fiandach.
Instead of using grams, the law should have used blood alcohol content as a measure.
Rochester Democratic Assemblyman David Gantt, head of the Assembly Transportation Committee that approved the bill before it went to the Legislature, said it was a typo.
The purpose of the law is to set a level that bans prosecutors from taking pleas to a lesser count of driving while impaired, similar to a traffic ticket. The law would also increase the penalties for a 0.18 blood alcohol content.
The law was supposed to go into effect this week, but prosecutors said they won't be able to enforce it until legislators fix the typo.