Should I Take a DUI Breath Tests| Illinois Dui Attorney
Although breath analysis is probably the most commonly used technique by law enforcement in attempting to establish whether or not a suspect was driving with alcohol in the system beyond a legal limit, the reliability of the tests has been called into question. Some scientists and experts think that breath tests, as they are currently administered by police, are very inaccurate, as far as their ability to measure blood alcohol content or BAC. Some courts have thrown out breath test results because of their unreliability. In 2002, the Washington Supreme Court ruled that a woman couldn’t have her driver’s license suspended because of possible problems with the reliability of an alcohol breath test. The woman challenged an administrative suspension of her driver’s license. The case focused on the reliability of thermometers used in breath-test machines. The thermometers are used to test the machines’ accuracy. Operators test the machines by getting a reading from an alcohol and water mixture. That mixture must be kept at 34 degrees centigrade, and that is where the thermometer comes in. The Supreme Court ruled that because evidence wasn’t produced to show that the thermometer on the machine used to give the woman a breath test had been certified as reliable, her license couldn’t be suspended. At least one court has even reversed DUI convictions on the grounds that breath tests are inherently unreliable. In State v. McGinley, 550 A.2d 1305 (NJ Super. 1988), the New Jersey …
