“Breathalyzer Buying Guide: 9 Things You Should Know About Personal Breathalyzers”
Complete the information below and then
click on “I Want My Report!”
We hate spam as much as you do;
we
will never give away your contact information.
Alcohol Levels
Even before alcohol levels reach the legal limit of 0.08%, driving impairment is a danger. What happens when a police officer pulls you over on suspicion of drinking and driving? While each law enforcement agency has their own standard operating procedures, there are common field sobriety tests that may be administered to determine if the driver has been drinking. Tests such as walking in a straight line, placing a finger on the nose or taking a breathalyzer test are all possibilities.
When an officer pulls a driver over on suspicion of drunken driving, he or she is trained to observe the driver’s behavior. Is the driver slurring his or her speech? Are they aware of the day and time? If so, and the officer still suspects high blood alcohol levels, a breathalyzer test may be performed. With increasing alcohol levels blood becomes more concentrated and passes through into the lungs, causing the drinker to exhale the alcohol. The alcohol being exhaled is then measured on a breathalyzer device, giving an officer a good estimate of a driver’s blood alcohol content (BAC).
In some states, breathalyzer results are not admissible in court or the driver can refuse the test all together. If that is the case, what happens next? In some states if a driver refuses a breathalyzer test the officer can arrest the suspect and transport him or her to a local hospital. Once a warrant is granted, the suspect can be forced to give a blood sample, which produces an accurate BAC. While this is not the first choice, it is so important that we get drunk drivers off the roads that laws have been put in place to ensure that it is possible to do so.
Why is the law so strict in regards to drinking and driving? The main reason is because of the high numbers of alcohol related deaths per year. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that there were 17,000 alcohol-related traffic fatalities in each of the last three years. Each alcohol related traffic fatality is completely avoidable. There is no reason anyone should drink and drive, regardless of how high or low their alcohol levels are. Because of this statistic and the thousands more like it, law enforcement has become much stricter with regards to driving while intoxicated.
