Breathalyzer Myths and Field Sobriety Tests

The breathalyzer test is one of the most difficult aspects of a DUI or Driving Under the Influence charge to overcome. If you've blown into the machine during a suspected DUI traffic stop and your Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) is over the legal limit, you'll definitely be charged with DUI.

There are several myths surrounding the breathalyzer and the potential to beat it despite being intoxicated. A lot of folks depend on beating the breathalyzer only to find out in court that what they believed were ways to do so, in reality did not affect the breathalyzers results. Sitting in court is not the time you want to find that out.

One of the more common breathalyzer myths is that if you put a penny in your mouth the test won't be accurate. The fact of the matter is that a police officer will make sure you haven't had anything in your mouth for twenty minutes prior to your being tested. A penny, gum, or just about anything in your mouth will invalidate the test, but the first thing a well trained police officer will do is to make certain that there is nothing in your mouth.

Another common myth is that you can defeat the test by not blowing into the tube while pretending that you are, causing the machine to register your breath as free of alcohol. The breathalyzer analyzes the amount of breath being taken in and alerts the officer if there's not enough air flow. If someone taking the test keeps pretending to blow but doesn't, the officer will eventually designate that the test was refused.

Yet another fallacy is that the officer can cause the machine to register a higher BAC than is actually present in the person suspected of driving under the influence. The days of "dialing up a drunk" on the old machines are over. The modern digital breathalyzers are made to be tamper-proof.

A breathalyzer test is much more difficult to overcome in court than are field sobriety tests. Your attorney can attack the breathalyzer if he can show that the test solution wasn't used on schedule, they can point out an officer's lack of required training, or that the test wasn't given soon enough after the arrest. The chances of success here are slim but a good attorney can make all the difference.

Field sobriety tests are much easier to defeat in court than the breathalyzer. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration studied field sobriety tests and developed a series of three, being the Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus, One Leg Stand and Walk and Turn tests, that if properly administered will allow an officer with a statistically high degree of success to show that a person's BAC is at least .10.

DUI attorneys can attack these tests in several ways. These include the officer not being adequately trained, the tests were not given in the prescribed manner, and that the officer misinterpreted the results. The possibility of human error on the officer's part is much greater than with the use of the breathalyzer.